


Ice Cream and Fire Oven Pizza

by Is Og Ild (IsOgIld)



Category: Disney - All Media Types, Frozen (Disney Movies), Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Comedy, Crossover Pairings, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, Rare Pairings, Romance, Romantic Comedy, Sassy, Slow Burn, basically imagine the whole KH universe crammed into a mall setting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:53:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 37
Words: 331,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24261643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IsOgIld/pseuds/Is%20Og%20Ild
Summary: She's an introvert ball of nerves who works at Ice Palace, a mall food court ice cream shop. He's the outgoing, sassy goofball who works at the Pizza Planet across the way. Hilarity, snark, and fluffy romcom hijinks ensue. [Elsa First Person | Elsa x Lea/Axel | Modern AU | Side Pair: Riku x OC]
Relationships: Axel (Kingdom Hearts)/Elsa (Disney), Elsa (Disney)/Lea (Kingdom Hearts), side pair: Riku x OC
Comments: 231
Kudos: 91





	1. Chapter 1

"Alright, Elsa, what's the plan here?"

My reflection in the changing room mirror stared back at me with a pointed look.

"Me?!" My hand flew up to my chest, fingers splayed as I breathed out a strained chuckle. "You think _I_ know what to do? You _do_ realize who we're talking about here, right?"

She frowned at me, eyelids drooping.

"Ugh, I know, I _know_ I need to call them, don't remind me!" I tossed my hands up and turned my back on the mirror as I began to pace in the tiny box of a room. I hugged one arm around my abdomen while I brought the other up so I could bite my thumbnail. "It's just… It's a _lot_ to take in! They won't understand, hell, _I_ don't even understand! I'm supposed to be the good girl! The one that always follows the rules and does as she's told, the one that can do no wrong. They'll…"

I froze mid step as my eyes fell on the heaping pile of alabaster silk, lace and tulle laying in a rumpled pile on the ugly carpet not a few inches from my feet. I winced. "...they'll be so disappointed. Their perfect girl is gone." Sighing, I shook my head and turned back towards my reflection once more, gripping the edges of the mirror. "I can't talk to them right now, I just _can't_. I should wait. Give them time to cool off and... and to _process_. Yeah, that'd be better, right? ...right?"

She stared back at me like a deer caught in the headlights.

I scowled. "Oh, you're no help."

"Hoo-hoo!" A sudden knock at the door made me jump as my heart leapt up into my throat. "Everything okay, deary? Who are you talking to in there?"

"Er… fine!" I called out. Was that a tremor in my voice? Dammit, girl, learn to keep your cool. Clearing my throat, I tried again. "Everything's fine! And no one! Talking to, that is. I'm talking to no one!" Wait. No. That sounded crazy. "Uh… I mean, talking to myself!" I flinched, slumping back against a wall and lightly banging my head against it. Not much better. "Talking? What talking? There's no talking going on in here!" Cue nervous chuckle.

Smooth.

"Oh? Must be hearing things then. Oh well!" I listened to his retreating footsteps until I couldn't hear them anymore.

Releasing the small breath I'd been holding, I looked myself over in the mirror once more. The price tags were still sticking out of the powder blue sundress and ankle boots I was wearing. They'd just been the first things I'd grabbed on entering this store, I'd hardly even looked at them before running straight back to the dressing rooms. Thankfully, fate or luck or whatever you wanted to call it seemed to have smiled upon me, at least in that second, for they'd turned out to be in my size. Yanking the tags off, I then squinted at my platinum blonde hair in the reflection, still up in the tight, elegant bun from-

I grimaced, quickly shutting down that train of thought as I started yanking out all the bobby pins. After dropping what felt like a million of those wiry little jerks to the floor, the bun loosened and unwound into a thick braid falling down my spine. Sweeping it forward over one shoulder and brushing my bangs back, I then gave myself one last hard look. My skin was even paler than usual, making my faint freckles stand out for once against my face. I took a second to try and slap some color back into my drained cheeks before stabbing an index finger up against the glass, hissing, "Keep it together, you got this."

Blue eyes blinked back at me owlishly.

"...I hope," I muttered, shoulders slumping. But then with renewed resolve, I straightened up once more, cast one last sour look at the giant, fluffy garment discarded on the ground before turning my back on it and marching out of the changing room door.

"Hoo-hoo!"

I jerked back as the cheerful voice pierced the air, what little courage I'd manage to piece together already fluttering away like a frightened bird. Heart pounding in my ears, I looked past the racks and racks of secondhand clothing to the source, a burly, rosy cheeked man standing behind the register counter, waggling his fingers at me as he flashed a warm little smile.

"That looks very nice on you, deary, if I do say so myself," he chirped. "And you're in luck! It's part of our big summer blowout, so it's fifty percent off!"

Ah. Right. Munny. A means of purchasing goods. A thing of which I had very little in that exact moment.

None, in fact.

Not even so much as a credit card.

"Th-thanks," I stammered, quickly looking away as I twisted my braid and tried to steady my breathing. Think, think, think… how was I going to get out of this? …I wished Anna were here. She'd know exactly what to do. She was always so much better at this whole… impulsive… _thing_. For now, I just needed to buy more time to think.

Act normal. I could do that at the very least, right?

Conceal, don't feel. Don't let him know.

"I… think I'll just browse a little more… if you don't mind," I managed to get out, going to the nearest rack and idly thumbing through a few of the outfits on hangers.

"Of course, of course, be my guest," he said, tapping his fingers together happily. "I must say, you were quite the sight when you came bursting in here! It's not everyday someone rushes into my shop dressed in a-"

"Costume party!" I blurted out, my fingers spasming and knocking one of the hangers from the rung, the shirt draped on it crumpling to the carpet. I snatched it up and hastily shoved it back onto the rack. "I just came from a… a costume party, that's all." My hand trembled and I balled it into a fist, hiding it behind my back.

Don't let him in, don't let him see.

"Oh! How delightful, a party! Well, you must have been the belle of the ball, deary!"

I hummed out a soft, curt laugh, my lips pressed into a tight smile. "I just left it back there. In the dressing room. You can have it if you, ah, if you like. I'm not attached to it."

His lips formed a tiny O, but then the smile was already back. "In that case, I'll knock ten percent off your purchase," he proudly held up all ten fingers to emphasize what a deal he was offering. "Sound fair?"

"...sure."

Now how to pay for the other ninety percent?

Forget it. Surprisingly, that was actually the least of my worries at the moment. I had much, _much_ bigger problems to deal with. Like what on earth I was even going to do once I stepped out those automatic doors and back onto the bustling city streets. I had nowhere to go. No one to turn to. No-

I inhaled sharply, my eyes widening and my fingers flying to my temples as my breathing became shallow again.

...where was I even going to sleep tonight?

On the streets? That's a thing some people actually did, right? But how to even pick the _right_ street, a _safe_ street? It's not like the homeless left online reviews with a star rating system on which alleys were primo bunking spots.

...oh dear lord, was I homeless now?

"Focus, Elsa, focus! Get it together," I whispered harshly at myself. Out of the corner of my eyes, I noticed my new friend behind the cash register giving me a funny look.

Reminder to self: act _normal_. Normal… you remember how to do that, right?

Okay, breathe in. Breathe out. Let's figure this out, calmly and rationally. Let's start with what city we're in. Oh gosh, what was it called again? I'd only said and heard it a million times in the last few months leading up to this day, but now my mind was drawing a total blank. Started with a T… Twi… something. Twixt… Twisted… Twirling…

Twilight! That was it! Twilight Town.

Wait… Twilight Town? There was something about that name… something from a long time ag-

Ah! Wasn't Twilight Town where _she_ had been from?

...oh wow, it'd been years since I'd even thought of her. Goodness, did she even still live here?

I glanced towards the salesman again. He beamed and wriggled his fingers at me in another tiny wave, "Hoo-hoo!"

I blanched, eyes snapping back down to the hanging clothes before me, heart hammering in my chest.

Dammit, girl, grow a backbone already.

Gulping down my anxiety, I looked to him again, plastering what I hoped could pass for a friendly, if somewhat shaky grin to my face and approaching the register. "Would you, um, would you possibly have a… a White Pages back there, maybe?"

"Of course, deary," he ducked down behind the counter before coming back up, plopping down the massive book in question before me. "Take all the time you need, I'll be right over there." He pointed to a large box in one corner of the store packed high with clothes, probably in need of sorting and price tags. "Just give a shout when you're ready to ring up."

"Thanks," I murmured, watching him walk off before pulling the phone book closer to me and cracking it open somewhere in the middle.

Let's see… last name… it'd been Hewley, right? I began rapidly flipping through the pages until I found the one I was looking for, lightly running my index finger down the column as my eyes scanned.

Hewley, R… Hewley, R… ah-ha, there! Oh fudge, none of the first names had been fully printed, just that damn first initial of R. My lips pursed to one side as I squinted down at the page. Oh well, it wasn't _that_ big of a list. "Excuse me?" I called back to the man and he looked up, a dark turquoise dress folded over one arm and a pair of boots in hand. "Would I be able to use your phone? Er… please?"

"Ah," he tsked sadly. "Sorry, deary, it's busted!"

"Oh. A-alright." I frowned back down at the list of names. Now what? Not like I could use a pay phone. Still had that whole munny problem, as in not having any. Did pay phones even still exist? Ugh, so _not_ the thing to be focusing on right now! Maybe... I could ask someone on the street if I could borrow their phone?

My nose scrunched up and I shook my head. No. _Hell_ no. Talk to a stranger? Me? Please. Even talking to _this_ guy here was a major feat for me and he was _paid_ to put up with me.

Sighing, I read over the list again, then blinked. Huh… addresses were included…

I looked to the employee on the opposite end of the store, who was currently faced away from me. Then my gaze flicked back down to the White Pages. Then at the doors leading outside. Back to him. To the book. To the doors. To the book. My eyes widened and my pulse spiked once more.

… I'm not seriously thinking what I think I'm thinking, am I?

"Hey!" he gasped. "What are you-?!"

Apparently I was.

For I'd already snatched the phone book up, clutching its open pages to my chest and pounding my soon-to-be officially shoplifted boots against the carpet as I bolted for the sliding glass doors. I yelled over my shoulder, "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I… I'll bring it back! All of it, the book, the clothes, everything, I promise! I just, I need to borrow them, just... just for a bit!"

"Get back here!" He charged after me, somehow suddenly looking ten times bigger and ten times more intimidating.

I squeaked, eyes forward once more as I forced every last ounce of speed out of my legs that they could muster. The doors glided open just enough for me to squeeze through in time and I stumbled outside, staggering into a sharp turn before booking it. Luckily, the sidewalks were crowded and I'd had just enough of a head start. It wasn't long before I managed to lose him, ducking behind the corner of one building. I pressed my back against the wall, panting heavily.

So, _so_ sorry, you oddly super nice yet super terrifying man! But I was really going to return it all, I swear!

I just needed to find _her_ first! Which shouldn't take long, right?

After all, it wasn't like I was going to have to check _every_ name on the list, right?

* * *

Answer: yes. I'd had to check all of them.

Every.

Single.

Last.

One.

On the _whole_ goddamn frigging list. And every single last one? Hadn't been her. I didn't even want to think about the sheer number of intercoms I'd buzzed or doors I'd knocked on, each one more nerve-racking than the last as I waited, chest tightening and hands clammy, to hear or see who'd answer. And each one a disappointment. I shuddered as I recalled the last one, still disturbingly fresh in my mind. He'd looked me up and down, given me a smile that'd made my skin crawl and told me while he didn't know anyone by that name, he'd gladly give me a place to sleep tonight and I could call him anything I liked.

And here I'd thought I'd sprinted with everything I had when I'd swiped this phone book, but my legs had proved me wrong in that second when I immediately turned and gave Speedy Gonzales a run for his munny to get away from that creep. Bleh!

Sighing, I glanced back down at the book, cradled close in my arms and still open to the same page. There was only one name left at the bottom of the list. This was it. My last chance.

Looking up again, I hesitantly crept down the hallway inside the apartment building, my eyes shifting from one door to the next, searching for the unit number that matched the address in the phone book. I passed a window, outside of which it was dark save for a few stars sparkling here and there. Night had already fallen. I'd been at this all afternoon. My legs were tired, my feet sore, and I was just about ready to collapse.

"Three seventeen… three eighteen… ah! Here it is, three nineteen!" I stopped in front of the door, taking a deep breath before slowly releasing it. Then balancing the White Pages in one hand, I curled the other into a fist, raised it towards the door and-

-stopped just short of it.

For it'd just suddenly struck me...

...what… was I going to do… if this wasn't her either? My hand, still hovering just an inch from the door, began to quake. This… really _was_ it. I had no other options. I couldn't go back. There was no way, just no way. Not even Anna could help me, otherwise I might just drag her down with me. My vision began to blur as I felt a wetness at the corner of my eyes. If… if I-

No. Stop it. Suck it up, hold it back. Just… hold it back.

I angrily swiped at my eyes, blinking several times until they cleared once more. Then squaring my shoulders and lifting my chin, I rapped my knuckles firmly against the door. And I waited.

Everything would work out. It'd all be fine. This would be her. This _had_ to be her.

I heard a click on the other side of the door and my breath hitched. Slowly it creaked open and there, standing in a faded black tank top and sweatpants, was…

...a man.

An admittedly quite pretty man, with his bright blue-green eyes and ashen hair down to his mid back currently pulled back into a loose ponytail.

But still... a man.

He cocked an eyebrow at me. "Can I help you?"

It wasn't her. Because she was a she, and this before me was very much a he. And she wasn't a he.

...not unless she'd made a very big, very life altering decision…

But no, he looked nothing like her, not even the same eye color. This _couldn't_ be her.

"Uh… hello?" he squinted at me, waving a hand in front of my face and I jerked back, blinking a couple times. "Anyone in there?"

Oh. Right. Talking. That was a thing I should be doing.

I cuddled the book closer to my chest, shifting my weight from one foot to the other. "Um, h-hi. Is… Living here, is there a…" I stopped, my mouth going dry.

What was the point of even asking? I already knew the answer he'd give me. It'd be the same answer all the other names on the list had given me. She wasn't here. She wasn't anywhere. It'd been a long shot, I don't even know why I'd gotten my hopes up. She'd probably moved out of town years ago.

I… was all alone with no place to stay.

I felt my eyes start to brim over and my bottom lip quiver.

He blanched. "Oh shit, are you okay?" he asked, an awkward hand stretching out towards me, but immediately halting and wavering, clearly at a complete and utter loss for what to do.

I couldn't hold it back anymore.

The metaphorical dam burst, tears pouring down my cheeks as I sunk down to the ground and buried my face in the pages of the phone book.

I hardly even heard it as he called over his shoulder, voice distraught, "Honey? Could you come out here for a minute? _Please?!_ "

I was going to have to live in a box on the streets. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Maybe it'd be a nice box. A box with a view. A deluxe box. A fancy box, with like a Prada or Rolex logo printed on the side.

"What is it? Why are you-" a new voice joined the conversation, cut off by a gasp and a stuttering of footsteps. Then there was a loud, distinctive _smack,_ followed by the man emitting a pained grunt. "What did you _do?!_ "

I was going to have to get a roommate so I wouldn't be lonely in my Rolex box. That roommate would be a cockroach, of course, since I'd be living on the streets. Her name would be Carol.

"Whaddya mean, what did I do?!"

"There's a _woman_ sitting on our _welcome mat_ weeping into a _phone book_ , Riku! I ask again. What. Did. You. _Do?!_ "

Carol would probably hog the shower every morning. Sounds like something Carol would do. Carol always seemed like a selfish hag.

"I didn't do anything! I just opened the door!" Another _thwack_ and another yelp. "What was that one for?!"

"It must have been _how_ you opened the door! You have a very off-putting way of opening doors!"

But then, it was a Rolex box on the street, so it wouldn't be so much a shower as a grimy, gutter puddle. Wouldn't make a difference to Carol though. Ugh, that wretch Carol. Always such a puddle hog.

" _How?!_ How does one be off-putting when opening a goddamn-"

"Shush! What's she saying?"

"No clue, she's just been sobbing incoherent gibberish this whole time."

Crud, had I been saying all that stuff aloud? At least it had been drowned out by all my blubbering, otherwise they would have thought me insane. Well… more insane than they probably already did, what with me being the whackjob wailing uncontrollably on some random strangers' door step.

"Wait… hold up…" the second voice lowered hesitantly. "Is that… you? ...Elsa?"

I stiffened, my eyes snapping open and my head jerking up. Next to the guy now was some chick, her long, messy black hair framing her face as she bent forward slightly for a better look at me, her gold eyes wide and searching.

Was it… really her? Was it…

"...Rayne?" I croaked out, punctuated by a sniffle.

Her hands flew up to her mouth. "Oh wow, it really _is_ you!" Brow furrowing now, she tentatively reached for me. "Sweetie, what's wrong? Why are you-"

"Oh my god, _Rayne!_ " I bawled, on my feet in a flash and throwing myself at her. She caught me, stumbling back a step as I threw my free arm around her to clutch at her shoulders while the other still grasped the now thoroughly soggy book between us. "It's you, it _really_ is you! Thank god! I'm so happy! Now I don't have to live in a box with Carol!"

"Um, I'm… happy for you?" she gingerly patted me on the back, glancing to the guy, who merely shrugged. "But… what's wrong? What on earth are you doing here?"

I pulled away, fingers digging into one of her sleeves now as the words started to rush out of me. "I couldn't go through with it! I just couldn't! It was all too much! The music, the chandeliers, the people, the, the… him! _Especially_ him! Because that's all it was going to ever be, was him! Just him! That's it! The end! It's what he wanted, and it's what _they_ wanted but what about me and what I wanted? Oh sure, I thought it was what I wanted at first, but then I started to think about it, _really_ think about it and I didn't know anymore and I just got scared and it just… I didn't, I couldn't... I couldn't do it, I couldn't stay! I had to get out of there, to run, to escape! Anna helped and-" My breath caught in my throat and I folded my fingers against my lips, pressing hard, making my knuckles turn white. "Oh no! All those people! What will they think? What will they say? Wha-" Another pause, this one with a scowl and a shake of my head. "No. No, no, no, I don't care! I don't care what they're going to say, they can take their hoity-toity opinions and shove it up their hoity-toity a-"

" _Elsa!_ " she snapped, grabbing me by the shoulders. "Elsa, Elsa, stop! You're not making any sense! Slow down, breathe! Words generally make more sense when they have spaces between them, you should try it sometime."

I clasped a hand over my mouth, inhaling and exhaling rapidly through my nose.

Her eyelids drooped and she sighed, reaching out to wipe some of my tears away. "Just… come inside and sit down so we can talk."

She took my hand in hers and led me into the apartment, the guy stepping in after and clicking the door shut behind us. The flat was modest, with a little kitchenette off to my left. The living room had blue carpets and sandy colored walls decorated with island paintings and what looked to be some sort of yellow, star-shaped fruit preserved in resin hanging in a glass case. I numbly followed behind her as she gently pulled me towards the nearest couch.

There was a cold hardness that I suddenly became aware of pressing into my palm and I looked down at where Rayne's hand held mine as she tugged me along. That's when I saw it. The plain, elegantly understated little silver band.

Wrapped around her ring finger.

I came to a screeching halt with a gasp, yanking her hand up to my face and forcing a yelp out of her as she stumbled back towards me. "You got _married?!_ "

Scratching her cheek with her free hand, she shrugged. "Uh, well, ye-"

"I didn't know you got married! You!" I dragged her over to the man, shoving the beringed hand in front of his nose. "Did you know she got married?!"

He staggered back a tiny step, his wide eyes darting from me to Rayne and back. Then he tentatively raised his own hand and pointed to the matching band he was wearing. "...sorta the one she's married to."

My eyes were welling up once more. "That's… that's… Congratulations!" I was all but attacking her with another tight hug and she wheezed out an _oof_. "I'm so happy for you!"

"Thanks," she chuckled softly. "Also… kinda have a baby on the way too, actually."

"A _baby?!_ " I tore myself away to gape at her. Then at her stomach. She was hardly even showing. "A baby!" I looked to her husband. "Did you know she has a baby?! In there?!" I pointed at her belly.

He glanced away, scratching the back of his head with the barest hint of a blush and pleased little grin twitching at one corner of his lips. "...sorta the one who put it in there."

"Riku!" Rayne hissed.

"What?!"

With a grumbling huff, she turned her back on him and stomped the rest of the way over to the sofa with me in tow, putting her hands on my shoulders and pushing me down to sit. She then plopped down across from me, using the coffee table as a makeshift bench.

"Enough about me. Let's try this again. Why are you here? Don't get me wrong, sweetie, I'm delighted you're here, but I haven't seen you since we were kids. Tell me what happened, why are you crying?" I opened my mouth and took a deep, _deep_ breath, but then she poked an index finger to my lips, silencing me before I'd even begun. "Hold it. Hmmmm," she narrowed her eyes, pressing her hands together and bringing her fingers up to her mouth. "...let's try more specific questions, shall we? Let's start with where the phone book came from?" she said, carefully removing said item from my grasp and handing it to Riku, who blinked and frowned but took it.

Alright, let's try not to overwhelm her this time. Put a muzzle on the motormouth. Keep it concise. To the point.

"I stole it," I said simply.

"You…" her eyebrows shot up into her bangs before she shook her head. "Okay, _why_ did you steal it?"

"Because the phone was busted."

Her head tipped to one side. "The phone…?"

I nodded earnestly. "These clothes too."

"Those clothes…" her gaze flicked to my sundress and boots before meeting mine again. "...are… also busted?"

"No. Stolen. I stole them too."

"Oh." She and Riku exchanged a glance. "Alright... why?"

My shoulders bobbed. "Because I had no munny."

"Had no…?" her head rocked back at that. "But… but you're _you_ , how could you possibly-" she cut herself off, scrunching up her nose with a sour twist to her lips. "Okay, just… help me out here and walk me through this. What happened? From the beginning."

From the beginning? Really? Well alright, she asked for it.

"We - he and I, that is - knew each other from childhood. Our families were close, so it only made sense that we played together, grew up together, spent time together. Then in high school, we started- well, of course we did, it only made sense, right? Everyone said it made sense and that it was only a matter of time and I figured they were right, so I did. We did."

I shot up from my seat and began pacing, Riku having to stumble back to get out of my way. My words started blurring into each other, tumbling out faster and faster as I wrung my hands together.

"Before I knew it, years had gone by and we were in our senior year of college and he was asking me and I was saying yes. I mean, of course, I said yes. He was him, I was me, his family was his family, my family was my family, it only made sense, right? And oh, my parents would be so _thrilled_ , they liked him so much and sure, I liked him too I guess, so…" I shrugged, flinging my hands up, "...why not?"

Rayne had stood up by now, attempting to interject, "Sweetie, sweetie, calm down," as her fingers snatched for my arm, but I absently evaded as my pacing quickened.

"So we graduated and we planned. Oh my god," I groaned, "so much planning, so many people, I just couldn't, ugh- Luckily mother handled most of it, you'd think she was the one who was- Anyway, it was all falling into place. The musicians, the catering, the cake, the flowers, the dress, the place, the- oh my god, the _place!_ Radiant Garden! What a lovely building, the perfect venue, so gorgeous with all those fountains and leaves and vines and marble, right in the middle of the beautiful city of Twilight Town and- Twilight Town! That's what brought me here, right now, to you! Is I recalled that's where you were from! Remember, you told me, back at our first year of summer camp? You remember camp, right? What was that one counselor's name," I snapped my fingers repeatedly in quick succession, "oh, Anna loved him so much… Olaf! That was it, right? The short, pudgy one with the thinning hair and big nose and adored everything about summer and liked warm hugs and-"

"Elsa!" Rayne grabbed my face, squishing my cheeks together, getting me to stop for a second. "I-"

But one second was all she was going to get.

"Right. Off topic." My expression hardened as I yanked my head free of her grasp and resumed pacing once more. "Back track. Rewind. So. It finally came. The day. You know… _The_ Day. And I was there. I was in the back, by myself, in my dress, in my makeup, thinking this is it. This is what it all comes to. This is my life. My future. Then it hit me." I halted mid step, spinning on my heel to look her in the eye and said dead serious, "He hates dogs."

She blinked once, then twice. "He…?"

"Hates dogs, yes. Oh sure, he claims he's allergic, but I've seen him around dogs before and he hasn't sneezed. Not once. And I _love_ dogs. I've always wanted one. A giant white one bigger than me that's just pure fluff on four legs with floppy ears and a curly tail and I'd name it Marshmallow because how perfect would that be and- Anyway, I realized that was never gonna happen now, not with him hating dogs! And who hates dogs anyway?! They're _dogs_ , Rayne! Dogs!And that's… that's just when it all started falling apart!"

Was I hyperventilating? Pretty sure I was hyperventilating.

"And I just… I suddenly had so many questions! Was this really what I wanted? Why was I doing this? Because it's what he wanted? Because it would please my parents? Because it's what everyone said would happen? Because it made sense? Do I even love him? And it just struck me… no! No, I don't think I do! I don't think I ever did!"

My steps began to falter, the room felt like it was spinning.

"That's when… That's when Anna came to get me, and she took one look at me and she... she just knew! Somehow, she knew! And she didn't even have to say anything, she was already helping me. Before I realized it, she'd managed to jimmy open a window in the back, this really teeny-tiny window, I don't even know how I managed to get through it, big poofy, frilly dress and all, but I did and I just started running and running and-"

Rayne grabbed my hands and jerked me into a staggering stop, shouting, _"Elsa!"_ I looked at her, eyes round and panting, wobbling slightly where I stood. She returned my gaze, brow furrowing and saying gently, "Are you… Were you going to get… Was today supposed to be your… _wedding_ day?"

"I…"

Was it getting darker in here? I was suddenly feeling so tired.

"I…"

I blacked out.

* * *

_**Author's note:** _ _So in this AU, Elsa is an antisocial emotional basket case and when she loses control of her emotions, instead of unleashing a burst of ice, she unleashes a burst of nervous babbling xD Sorry, no Lea yet this chapter, I feel like there's no harm in telling you all now, he doesn't show up until the end of chapter 3! Please be patient with me for a couple chapters while I do some setup first to get Elsa where she needs to be before the fluffy romcom shenanigans can truly begin. If you just stick it out until the end of chapter 3, I'm pretty sure you'll be sucked in by then :) Oh, and Rayne is my friend’s OC, much love and many thanks to her for letting me borrow her!_

_This story is **rated T** for a certain fiery redhead who likes to sprinkle in a few choice colorful words whenever he talks._

_Thank you so much for reading! If you have any friendly feedback, I would really appreciate hearing it!_


	2. Chapter 2

The first thought I had when I woke up was…

...who the heck painted my ceiling green?!

Because last I checked, it was a midnight blue… or maybe more of a cobalt blue? Azure, possibly…?

Whatever it was, it was most definitely _not_ green.

I narrowed my eyes up at it groggily before deciding I didn't care and rolled over in bed, curling onto my side. Which led me to my second question…

...where had this frigging baby crib next to my nightstand come from and what the actual frick was it doing in my room?

No… forget the crib… what was the deal with the absolute _mountain_ of Huggies boxes stacked up behind it?

Either this had to be just one of the weirdest, dumbest, not to mention _lamest_ pranks Anna had ever pulled on me or…

...or this wasn't my room.

I shot up in bed, wide eyes darting about. Yup, definitely _not_ my room. Not unless I had decided to do a few home improvements in my sleep and say, I don't know, move my door to the total opposite wall. Or how about the entirely different furniture, complete with a giant shelf packed tight with more baby books than a person could possibly ever need in one lifetime? Then of course there was that heaping pile of toys and stuffed animals stacked in one corner. Did I mention the sheer amount of Huggies? Because dear god, the Huggies…

I was going to have nightmares about drowning in an endless sea of them, mark my word.

It was as I was shuddering at that mental image that it finally all came rushing back to me and I gasped - my wedding! My escape! My shoplifting! My breakdown on Rayne's doorstep! My-

Wait, wait, go back… Rayne!

... _that's_ probably where I was. Still in her apartment. But… I didn't remember _this_ room… not walking into it, not even so much as a glimpse of it, just… not at all...

Placing a cool hand to my forehead, I searched my muddled brain some more for the details of what happened last night. Or, _seemingly_ last night anyway, if the early morning light streaming in through the window curtains was any clue. I remembered… her inviting me in… discovering she was married and expecting, which would somewhat explain the almost disturbing amount of diapers… and then I'd-

Oh dear lord, I had utterly and one hundred percent lost my absolute marbles. Oh gosh, what must she think of me…

I couldn't remember much after that. Nothing, in fact. My memories just abruptly stopped. Had I... fainted?

Well I wasn't going to get any answers if I kept hiding in here. Even less so if I curled up into a ball under the covers and waited for the earth to swallow me and my shame up whole, as lovely and tempting a thought as that sounded.

Sighing, I put one bare foot on the carpet, then the other and reluctantly arose. I spotted my… well... _"my"_ ankle boots tucked neatly next to one of the bedpost legs, prompting me to look down at myself to see that I was still in the, erm… _borrowed_ sundress, now thoroughly wrinkled. My hair was still in its braid, though calling it that would have been generous as it was now more just one big frazzled knot. Tossing it back over my shoulder with a sigh, I approached the door, reaching a hand out towards it. My fingers hovered over the knob, hesitating for a split second before twisting it open and stepping out.

A rapid _click-clack_ filled the air as I quietly stepped into the familiar living room from the night before. It didn't take long to spot the source. Rayne was seated at the table in the dining space, fingers quickly tapping away at her laptop keys. She looked like she had just gotten out of bed, still in pyjamas and her hair thrown into a loose, messy bun at the nape of her neck. She had a pencil tucked behind one ear and the light from the screen reflected off the lenses of her black-rimmed glasses, her entire focus trained on her work.

"Morning, sunshine," she chirped, not looking up nor putting the brakes on her typing. "Be with ya in just a sec."

"Take your time," I murmured, not wanting to interrupt whatever she was in the middle of. I figured it was the very _least_ I could do after having a total core meltdown in her living room yesterday.

Not quite sure what to do with myself in the meantime, I once more reached for the tangled-mess-formerly-known-as-braid that was my hair, idly toying with it as I glanced around. It didn't seem like there was much more to the apartment than what I'd already seen. To my right, there was a short hallway with three more doors, each closed. Presumably one another bedroom where the happy couple slept, one a restroom, which would make the third a…?

Letting my curiosity get the better of me, I stretched a hand out towards the nearest mystery door to take a quick peek.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Rayne sing-songed while otherwise still fully engrossed in her laptop.

I froze, fingertips brushing the doorknob as I turned my head to blink at her. Then I pursed my lips to one side. "...closet bursting full of baby diapers?"

Her typing abruptly silenced and she directed an eyebrow quirk my way. "Actually, yes. How did you know?"

"Wild guess," I said dryly. "I'm sorry, did you say you were having a baby or a litter?"

"Shush, you, I'm nesting," she harrumphed, fingers blurring across the keyboard once more.

For now, maybe it'd be better if I kept my hands to myself. Who knew what other potential death traps Macguyvered out of baby paraphernalia lurked about this place? Hugging myself, I trudged over to the dining table, took a seat opposite of Rayne and waited.

Hardly another minute ticked by before she gave a satisfied final tap to the laptop. "Annnnnnd done!" she beamed, clicking the device shut. She then leaned forward, resting her elbows atop the table and propping her chin on her interlaced fingers as she regarded me. "So…"

"So…" I fidgeted some more with my frazzled knot, averting my gaze. "...on a scale of one to off-my-rocker, how crazy did I sound last night?"

She closed her eyes with a bright grin. "Oh, you were batshit, sweetpea."

I winced. "That's... what I thought. Sorry."

"Don't be!" she brushed it off with a flick of her hand. "It was the most excitement I've had in weeks, so actually I'm a little grateful."

My mouth twisted into a wry grin. "Well then… you're welcome, I guess. I'm glad my neurotic episode could brighten an otherwise dull moment in your life."

"Oh hush, you know I love you." Crossing her arms, she leaned back in her chair with a sigh. "Now it was a bit hard to keep up, but let me see if I got the gist here. You," she struck up a finger, "were going to get married…"

I hung my head, "Yeah."

Another digit rose. "...but realized you didn't love him…"

My shoulders slouched as I sunk down in my seat, my voice getting smaller as I said, "...yeah."

Up went the third. "...that you _never_ loved him…"

Grimacing, I slumped forward, pressing my face into the table, "Uh huh…"

"...and so you dumped him at the altar."

I groaned, banging my forehead against the hard, wooden surface. "I am the worst."

"Aw, sweetheart, no." The scraping of her chair against the floor could be heard as she scooched around the table closer to me before I felt her hand rubbing light circles against my back. "You… just got scared is all, and you panicked… I mean, really? You did the right thing." I turned my head, resting my cheek against the table now as I gave her a dull stare. She pressed on hastily, "No, seriously! If you'd had stayed, you wouldn't have been happy. _He_ wouldn't have been happy. It would have been a terrible marriage, your lives would have been miserable… really, you did him a favor! I mean, sure, could you have handled the break up a bit better?" Her face scrunched up slightly before she flung her hands up in the air with a shrug. "...Maybe?"

"Ugh!" I full on faceplanted into table once more. "The absolute _worst!_ I deserve to be locked in a tiny, cramped box filled with spiders and worms and dung beetles and moldy, rotten eggs and, and _anchovies_ and-"

"Sweetie, sweetie, you're spiraling again," she cut me off gently, taking hold of my shoulder and pulling me back to sit up straight once more and look her in the eye. "The point is, I'm sure he'll understand." My eyelids drooped at her. "Eventually! I'm sure he'll understand _eventually_. Just… give him some time, let this whole thing blow over, then you two can talk. Get some closure. Okay?"

I looked down at my lap with a sigh and just gave a weak, noncommittal shrug.

"Okay then. Now," she hesitated, gnawing her lower lip. "...can I ask… when you made a run for it, why of all places did you come to _my_ apartment? I'm always, _always_ here for you, you know I am, but it's been… god, I don't even know how long… _years_ since we even last spoke. You didn't have someone else, any other friends or anyone you could have turned to?"

I swallowed hard and slowly shook my head. "I don't… have any friends. Not really. It's… always been hard for me to make them. I've just never been good with people. You remember how I was as a child back when we were at summer camp, all nervous and awkward and hardly able to string two words together."

She gave me a small smile. "Yeah, and all the other kids didn't even give you a chance, just figured you were some snooty, rich brat who thought yourself better than them and couldn't see you were just shy." Her grin turned a touch wicked. "I pummeled them good though and made them regret ever picking on you."

One corner of my mouth twitched upward and I nodded. "I was always so thankful for your friendship. I'm… sorry we drifted apart over the years."

"S'okay," she waved a dismissive hand. "We lived so far apart from each other, only seeing each other every summer. It's just something that happens sometimes as people grow older, I suppose. But hey… looks like we're not quite done with each other yet."

"Guess not," I chuckled softly before my face sunk into a frown once more. "I never did get any better at making friends. Everyone I know now… they're all my parent's friends… or they're his friends…"

She tipped her head to one side. "His?"

I gave her a pointed look. " _Him_."

"Oh. The dumpee. Right."

"They're all just… they're not people I really know, they're… _acquaintances_ , you know? And they're all from munny, they're all from _that_ world, they were all at the wedding, they… none of them would have understood. Except for Anna, but she still lives with Mother and Father, so best she could do was help me escape. But after that?" I fell silent, shaking my head.

Her brow furrowed. "What about your home? Couldn't you have gone there?"

I gave a derisive snort. "With what munny? I fled in my wedding dress, so I didn't even have my phone on me, much less my wallet, so it's not exactly like I could've called an Uber. Besides, even if I could have, that'd have been the last place I went. My parents pay for my condo and after what I've done, I can't face them. Not ever again. I'm never going back… Mother, Father, my old life, all of it... it's the past now." My face hardened as I murmured, "The past is in the past."

She blinked at me a couple times. "Don't you think you're maybe being a bit over dramatic? It's your _parents_. They love you, no matter what. I mean, sure, maybe they'll be a lil pissed, but-"

"No, you don't understand," I shook my head with a scowl. "What I've done… I did it in front of all their friends, their colleagues, their… I've embarrassed them in front of so many important people. And don't even get me started on how much they spent on the wedding that I didn't even show up to," I grimaced, now squeezing the giant knot that was my hair. "I had a… we had… _they_ had a plan for me, for my whole future, and I just… blew it all up and threw it back in their faces. So no, they won't just be pissed, they'll be _furious_ … we're talking yelling, screaming, we're talking Hulk smash, we're talking end of days, wrath raining down from the heavens kind of mad here. They're going to cut me off and…" I gulped, slumping down further into my chair, eyes downcast as I whispered, "...and disown me."

Rayne placed a hand on top of one of mine and I glanced up at her again as she said, "You should call them. But maybe… just give them a little time to cool off first? In the meantime, it's a good thing you found me again." She smiled and I couldn't help a tiny one of my own in return. With a couple pats to my hand, she added, "What luck you chose my town to get hitched in, huh? Talk about coincidence! What would you have even done if you'd decided to pull your lil disappearing act in a whole other city?"

"Actually, we were deciding between a few venues in different cities to host the ceremony in." I frowned thoughtfully. "But something kept pulling me back to Radiant Garden in Twilight Town. I think… it was because of you. Subconsciously, I was already planning an escape route weeks ago. You were already my way out, my rope made of blankets hanging out a window, it just... took me a while to realize it, I suppose."

"Well, happy to be your blanket rope any day, boo," she tapped my nose with a grin. "A lil warning next time would be nice though, kay? Ya know, just a quick heads up, something like, 'hey, I'm planning on making like a banana and splitting from my own wedding and need a place to crash' will do."

I breathed a short laugh. "Noted, though I don't really plan on making a habit of this."

"Speaking of plans, any ideas what your next step'll be? What exactly _is_ your plan here?"

"Ugh, don't get me started," I rolled my eyes. "Already had this talk with my reflection yesterday and trust me, she was totally useless." Rayne stared at me blankly and I cocked my head at her. "What?"

"...context, sweetie."

"Oh, right." I suppose there _were_ still a few dots that I needed to connect for her. "Well… after Anna helped me escape, I needed a change of clothes. If I kept parading around town in my wedding gown, it probably wouldn't have been long before my parents tracked me down. Luckily, first store I stumbled across was a used clothing shop. After I changed into this," I gestured towards the crinkled mess of a sundress I was wearing, "right then and there in the dressing room is when my panic attack went into full swing and I sort of got into a lively debate with the mirror about where my future was heading. That was about as effective as you might imagine," I grumbled the last part. "But then I thought of you and asked the person working there for a phone book."

"Ah." She looked past me to the coffee table in the living room, where the White Pages had been left, still rumpled but now dried of my tears. "That explains that, I guess. But… it's a _phone_ book, why didn't you just call-" She paused abruptly, eyes lighting up as it clicked. "...busted phone?"

I nodded. "Busted phone."

Her eyebrows knit together now, voice quaking with hardly contained laughter as she asked, "So the next logical step to you was to _steal_ the phone book?"

My eyes darted to the left. "...yeah."

"As opposed to, ya know, borrowing a pencil and jotting down the addresses on a scrap of paper? Like a sane person?"

I huffed out a soft growl, wrenching at my tangled knot once more. "Hi, have you met me? Not good with people, remember? My brain just shuts down and I get all, I dunno… chicken with its head cut off. And being on the lam after going rogue on my wedding day? Did _not_ help matters when it came to thinking straight, _believe_ me."

She snerked, ruffling my bangs. "Oh you poor, sweet, socially inept weirdo you! If it makes you feel any better, you're in good company. As you might recall, I myself am about as eloquent as a potato."

"But twice as pretty," a third voice chimed in and we looked over just as Riku used his foot to shut the front door behind him, smirk in place and bearing a styrofoam cup carrier tray with three steaming drinks in it.

"Rude," Rayne deadpanned, removing the pencil from behind her ear to flick it at him.

He sidestepped it without breaking stride, lips twitching wider. "Not even. You know how pretty I think potatoes are."

"Dork," she shook her head as he came to a stop next to her and planted a kiss atop her forehead, depositing one of the drinks on the table in front of her.

These two? Actually kind of adorable.

But also… ugh. Love. Gross.

She smiled, bringing the cup up to her nose with a curious sniff. "Mmmmm, pumpkin spice? How did you manage to swing that this time of year?"

"Aqua," he said, making his way over towards me now but eyes still on his wife. "She's squirreled away a secret stash in the back just for you."

"Bless that woman, she's an absolute angel," she sighed happily, blowing on the beverage before taking a cautious sip.

He gave the two remaining cups a quick glance before handing one to me with a friendly grin. "A little birdie told me you're a fan of peppermint."

"You remembered," my eyes crinkled as I looked to Rayne, who merely winked at me. I felt the pleasant warmth from the cup seep into my fingers as I inhaled the aroma deeply. Sure enough, it was some sort of minty mocha blend. I gazed up at Riku, managing a shy, tiny smile. "Thank you. I'll pay you back."

"Don't even worry about it," he brushed off. "By the way, we haven't officially been introduced yet. I'm-"

"Riku," I nodded. "That much at least managed to slip past the fog of crazy and reach my brain yesterday… nice to meet you. Looks like you already know me by now," I held up the drink he'd gifted me, pointing to where _Elsa_ was scrawled in sharpie across it. Then I grimaced somewhat as I put it down on the table, fingers playing with the coffee sleeve wrapped around the cup. It had a grinning feline face printed on it with the words _Lucky Cat Café_ printed underneath. "...sorry by the way... about last night."

"Don't be. You have nothing to be sorry for. Sounds like you were in a tough spot and needed a friend." He stood beside Rayne once more, resting a tender hand on her back as she leaned into him a bit. "And any friend of Ray's is a friend of mine. Happy to help in whatever way we can."

"Thanks…" I murmured, still staring hard at my to-go cup. The side opposite of the logo had a small blurb of a story recanting how before it became a chain, the first Lucky Cat was a humble little shop in San Fransokyo run by a woman and her two nephews. "...you're both too kind, really…" I paused with a sigh and a shake of my head, "but I've imposed on you both too much already. Thank you _so_ much for letting me stay the night, but I couldn't possibly ask for anything more from either of you. In fact, I should just go. Just… give me a few minutes to get myself together and then I'll leave you both in peace again."

Rayne narrowed her eyes at me. "You will do no such thing!"

I rose from my chair, "No, seriously, it's okay. You don't have to worry about me, I'll be fine. I'll figure something out."

What though? Good question. Was still working on that part.

Her eyelids drooped as she set an elbow on the table and leaned forward. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but you still have a bit of a munny problem, as in you don't _have_ any."

I gave a weak laugh and shrugged, "Psh, details."

She quirked an eyebrow. "And just where do you think you'll sleep while you're broke off your ass?"

"I have… prospects…"

"...that wouldn't have anything to do with the box you mentioned yesterday?"

My eyes shifted. "And Carol, can't forget about her."

Somehow, Rayne did not look reassured. "And Carol would be?"

Boy, were my fingers really getting tangled in my frazzled knot now. "A… a cockroach?"

"A cockroach," she repeated, voice flat.

"A _hypothetical_ cockroach," I clarified with a nod.

"That doesn't make it better," she sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Look, there's no way I'm letting my friend live in a box-"

"Not just any box! A _Rolex_ box," I interjected hastily. The silence stretched and I floundered a bit under her unamused stare. "So… you know, like… a really _nice_ box."

She scoffed. "Yeah, no. Not happening. You're staying with us."

I shook my head, waving my hands back and forth in front of me. "Oh no, I couldn't possibly! I don't want to be any more of a burden than I've already been and besides, you don't have any space for me, not with the baby on the way and-"

"The jellybean won't be here for another six months at least," she cut in, looking down to place a gentle hand on her belly. "We were going to turn the spare room into a nursery, but we can clear all the baby stuff out for now and you can use it at least until the kiddo arrives. If you need it for longer, well then, we'll figure it out at that time."

"But-"

"Oof!" Riku grunted as Rayne shoved him forward with a smack to his rear. Rubbing his posterior, he looked from her to me. "We, er… we ask that you-" He hissed in pain as she pinched his arm, narrowing her gaze up at him. "I mean, we _insist,_ " he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, whispering, "insist, right?" She gave a firm nod. Clearing his throat, he continued, "We insist that you stay with us. We, uh… won't take no for an answer."

Well… when one makes such a super sweet and super _coerced_ offer like that, how could I possibly refuse?

Still I hesitated, worrying my bottom lip between my teeth. "I suppose...only if it won't be too much of a bother… and this'll of course only be until I can find a more permanent solu-"

"Then it's settled!" Rayne leapt up from her chair and I staggered as she tackled me in a death-grip hug. "Welcome to your new home, roomie!"

I couldn't resist a small smile at that. It was fleeting however as the corners of my mouth turned down once more. "That's only one problem solved though, what about the million others? There's still my parents, my ex, my- oh gosh, I have an _ex_ now. My first ex. How weird is that? What am I supposed to even do with an ex?! Like what, do I… send him cards now? Like around Christmas? Or is that too impersonal? Maybe this is more of a fruit basket situation... Oh! And munny! I have to figure out what I'm going to do about _that_ now, not to mention my whole life and future and-"

"Stop," she put a finger to my lips, silencing my babbling. "Breathe. Why do I get the feeling I'm going to be reminding you to do that a lot now?" she huffed softly. "Just… baby steps, okay? I know it all seems like a lot right now, everything is one big fat question mark, but it'll all get figured out. You've already made a little progress already."

I blinked. "...I have?"

"Yes! For starters, you're not homeless! But also, think about it… you're already doing better than you were last night. I mean, at least you're no longer a complete basket case."

"I suppose that's true," I muttered, absently wringing my hands together. Not a _complete_ basket case… now I was only like twelve percent of one.

Okay, fine, more like sixty percent.

"See? It's still scary, yes, but not as scary and overwhelming as it was yesterday! All you needed was a little space along with a good night's rest to gain some perspective."

I slowly eased back down into the chair. "I guess you're right… things don't seem as bad today. Still bad, very, _very_ bad, but… not as much as last night. Heh… it's funny how some distance can make everything seem small."

"And it'll just keep getting easier, believe me," Rayne rubbed my shoulder as she too took a seat once more. "Just look at this as a new beginning."

My eyebrows knit together. "A new beginning?"

She nodded. "Yeah, like… okay, what was your life like before? Before you flew the coop, before this whole mess when everything was all status quo, what was it like with your parents?"

A low hum escaped me. "Well, I guess I always just did as I was told. I got the grades my parents wanted me to get, socialized with the groups my parents wanted me to socialize with, went to the university my parents wanted me to go to, dated the guy I thought my parents would want me to date… never did any wrong, always followed the rules… I was always just the good girl I felt I had to be. Being their eldest child, I felt I had an image to maintain, that I must always do what was expected of me, that I owed it to Mother, to Father, to the family name."

"Okay, sure, but now all of that?" She smirked at me. "You can just forget about it! No more right or wrong and you can take those stupid, stuffy rules and just throw them out the window! This is a new start for you. Now you get to decide what _you_ want for yourself, no one else. You're free!"

I stiffened at that, blinking a couple times as her words sunk in.

...no right, no wrong… no rules for me?

I'm… free?

That… actually sounded kind of amazing.

But also totally and utterly terrifying.

Where's a rock to hide under when you need it?

"Earth to Elsa, come in please." Rayne snapped her fingers in front of my face and I flinched, wide eyes focusing on her once more. "Sorry, I could just already see you drifting off into worrywort mode so figured I had to reel ya back in quick. Look, I get it. Going from life as practically royalty in a gilded cage to being thrust penniless and clueless into the real world would sound scary and daunting to anyone. But you don't have to do it alone." She wrapped her arms around her husband's waist, hugging him close. "You have Riku and me. Just consider us your _Real World for Dummies_ book!"

That… was actually super comforting to hear. I could already feel the anxiety beginning to ebb a bit. "Thanks, I… that means a lot to me," I smiled faintly before breathing a small sigh. "Okay then, where should this dummy start?"

"Alright, lesson one," she struck up a finger. "Everything costs munny. Solution? Get a job."

One eyebrow shot up my forehead. "A job?"

"Yup! I mean, you're gonna have to pay for rent somehow!"

My other eyebrow rose to join the first. "R-rent?"

Okay, anxiety back now, and cranked up to a thousand!

"Of course. What, did you think this was gonna be a free ride? Pft, please. I'm your _friend_ , not Mother Teresa. It's for your own good, you're going to need to learn how to provide for and take care of yourself. But don't worry, you won't owe us anything until you land an actual job."

"Oh… okay." That didn't sound too bad, I suppose. However… "Just one question: how do I do that?"

Her head tilted to the left. "Do what? You mean… get a job?"

"Yeah," I nodded vigorously, "that."

"You're kidding me, right? Have you never had a job before?" You could almost hear the non-existent crickets as I just stared owlishly back at her. Finally she facepalmed. "What am I saying, of course you've never had a job. Why would you? You have enough munny to make Tony Stark look like chump change… er, rather, you _had_. Oi, this might be harder than I thought," she grumbled, rubbing the nape of her neck.

"What were you going to do?" Riku piped up.

I looked up at him with a frown. "What was I…?"

He crossed his arms over his chest, "You know, as in your career? What were your goals, your ambitions, your plans for the future?"

My fingers were back at it again, getting ensnared in my bedraggled knot. I really needed to see about disentangling the stupid thing. "Well, I… I guess I never really thought about it…"

"What?!" Rayne's head rocked back at that. "How could you not?! Didn't you say last night you just graduated? What were you going to do now that you were out of school?"

"I was going to get married!"

Were these people even listening to a word I'd said?!

Riku rubbed his chin, "Let's try a slightly different angle here. What about your major? What were you studying?"

Here I cringed a bit. "Art History."

Rayne clapped her hands together once, "Well then, there you go! You can apply to a museum or something."

"But I _hated_ it. Another thing I did only because my parents encouraged me to. I don't want to work at a museum or sell art or teach it or have anything to do with it!" And once again, I was slumping forward. Hello table, my old friend. Don't mind me, I'll just be banging my forehead against you a few times. "Ugh, why did I have to waste four years of my life on that?! Stupid, useless major!"

"It's okay, it's okay," she tugged on my knot, forcing me to sit back up once more. "It's not that bad, really!"

"Not that bad? I have no skills, no experience, nothing! No one's going to want to hire me, I'm about as qualified as a frigging kumquat! Scratch that, the kumquat is _more_ qualified because at least it can be made into a smoothie. Can I be made into a smoothie? _No!_ I can't do anything!"

She puffed out a breath, "Calm down, there's plenty you can do! You'll definitely figure this out."

I tucked in my lower lip as I looked down, mulling it over for a second. Then I glanced back up at them hopefully. "...what do you two do for a living? Would either of you maybe be able to get me a job?"

"University professor," Riku said, jerking a thumb into his chest. "My field is astronomy, not that that helps you one way or another. You said teaching was out."

"And I'm a reporter for Meteor Publishing." Rayne looked away with a low growl, "Though lately I've been relegated to online editing work from home because _somebody_ thought it would be a good idea to put me under house arrest ever since we discovered I was pregnant."

Riku held his hands up in a placating gesture. "Hey now, it wasn't just me. Vyv agreed with me."

She scoffed. "Stupid useless boss. In any case, I can't really be of assistance either, I'm afraid. You kind of need the experience and background to work in journalism. You got anything like that? A course you took for fun in college? Wrote for your high school paper? Anything?"

"I've never even so much as kept a personal dairy," I sighed, eyes downcast once more. "It's hopeless!"

"No, sweetie, it's not hopeless! There's still plenty out there for you! Lot's of entry-level jobs that'd be willing to train you. It probably won't be anything glamorous, but you gotta start somewhere! Not gonna lie though, it'll probably be retail. You know... customer service."

"Meaning…?"

Looking me dead in the eye, she intoned one single, solitary word that rang out like a funeral toll. "People."

I blanched.

Okay, this was it.

My nightmare.

She cupped my hands in hers and when she spoke, her voice was gentle. "Sorry, but there's just no way around it. It's either that or putting that Art History bachelor's of yours to work. Pick your poison."

If you hadn't gotten the memo by now, me and people? Did _not_ go together. Something about being around them caused my muscles to lock, my heart to freeze to ice, my insides to shrivel, and my soul to exit my body. If it were up to me, I'd have become a hermit a long time ago. But I'd never be able to pull it off... I couldn't grow that iconic beard that was basically required hermit dress code. Bleh, being a hermit was such a male dominated field, it really wasn't fair.

All that said, however…

"If I _were_ to go the Art History route," I began slowly, "it would be kind of like I was still letting my parents dictate my life since _they're_ the reason I majored in it. No… I want nothing to do with that stupid degree." My expression hardened. "So, customer service it is then. I'm going to make it on my own, this is just something I have to do. It… will be good for me." Despite myself, my tone lost some of its edge as I asked, "...right?"

Rayne grinned big at me. "Absolutely! Besides, it'll only be temporary, just something to give you time to land on your feet and figure out what you _really_ want to do with your life. And remember, we got your back every step of the way. I can help you with the job search and filling out applications. Riku's definitely more of the social butterfly, so he can prep you for interviews."

My back stiffened. "Interviews?"

Riku gave a light snort. "You know, as in the thing that will actually land you a job? Resumes and job forms are great for getting your foot in the door, but they're not enough on their own. Employers actually want to meet you, see if you'll be a good fit, get a feel for who you are, stuff like that."

Oh dear…

Was it too late to backtrack and get married?

Zip it, brain, I don't want to hear that kind of talk! Stay strong, girl!

"Why don't you give her a bit of a trial run right now, hun?" Rayne suggested, standing up and offering him her chair. "Give her an idea of some of the questions she might be asked."

"Alright," he took a seat across from me, scooting forward slightly and plastering on a blinding smile. "Hi, I'm Riku, I'll be interviewing you for the position we're hiring for." He offered me his hand and I twitched back from it slightly. Blank stare darting back and forth between his outstretched palm and his face a few times, I at last tentatively took it to shake. He cleared his throat, looking at me expectantly. I blinked at him. He sighed, "...and you would be?"

"Oh! Um… Elsa… pleasure, to uh… to make your acquaintance?" I ventured.

"Likewise," his hands folded in his lap. "Now tell me, why do you want this job?"

I straightened up, "Oh, this one's easy. For munny."

Riku spluttered and coughed into his fist. Choking back a laugh, Rayne said, "Tact, sweetheart. Try not to be so blunt."

"Oh."

This whole interview thing was sounding harder and harder by the second.

Having regained some composure, Riku tried again. "What would you say is your greatest weakness?"

My gaze shifted to the right as my fingers fiddled with my knot once more. "Oh gosh, I have so many, it's hard to pick just one."

He gave me a dull stare. "Maybe consider… honesty is not always the best policy."

"Also remind me later that we really need to boost that self confidence of yours," Rayne muttered behind him.

"Alright," Riku lifted his chin, "Where do you see yourself in five to ten years?"

Was he joking? "I don't even know where I see myself in five to ten _minutes_ , let alone years!"

He smacked himself in the face, dragging his hand down. "We… have our work cut out for us."

And so it went. Riku tried a few more questions on me, but the rest of my answers continued to go about as well as you might expect. As he and Rayne did their best to prepare me for the real thing, I had to keep telling myself that despite my fears and doubts, this was what was best for me. Sure, it was going to be hard but in a way, that was good. My life had been too easy so far, with everyone making decisions for me. Everyone, that is, except for myself. I had been limiting myself and taking the easy way out this whole time, never realizing my full potential. But not anymore. It was time to see what I could do, to test those limits and break through. This was going to be the new me, not that old fake persona I'd always put on because it was what my parents had wanted. It was time to learn who I really was. And above all, I just needed to keep reminding myself that now…

...I'm free.

* * *

_**Author's note:** _ _Not sure if it sounds weird for Elsa to say "frigging" or "frick" (she's gonna do it semi-regularly-ish) but trust me, there's a reason she does! There's always a method to my madness, I swear! …and sometimes those methods are stupid, but still, what matters is that there IS IN FACT a method xD_

_Thank you so much for reading and to those of you who have shared with me your feelings on this story so far! If you have any friendly feedback, I would really appreciate hearing it!_


	3. Chapter 3

I'd done it.

I'd gotten a job.

My very first job.

And I was already regretting it big time.

But really, could you blame me? I'd had to interact with three, count them, _three_ people so far. Would the torture never end? No, because it had only just begun! And those were just my boss and coworkers, I hadn't even gotten to a customer yet. I was dreading that inevitable moment as it drew ever nearer with each passing second.

Oh, and did I mention the uniform? Because, dear lord, if I'd known this is what I'd be signing up for, I probably never would have applied in the first place. For starters, I had to wear a light blue fitted, long sleeved, off shoulder blouse which, granted, wasn't _that_ bad. But that was only the tip of the iceberg. It was paired with a black mini skirt that stopped a couple inches short of the knees. Can you believe it? A _mini skirt_. I didn't see any of my male coworkers sporting booty shorts, no, they got to be fully covered up in white button ups, blue vests, and black slacks. Talk about sexist!

But a job was a job, and I had to start _somewhere_.

And that somewhere just so happened to be the Ice Palace - a small ice cream shop located in the food court of a local mall known as Dusk Town Center. The walls of the little parlor were decorated in a jagged, cerulean, semi-transparent plastic, simulating the whole frozen castle vibe. The mascot was Sven the Reindeer, which was actually sort of weird to me. I mean, I get it, reindeers are up where it's cold and snowy all the time, but weren't they really more of a Santa thing? I just couldn't really picture them chilling in a frosty throne room, you know what I mean? But hey, I guess it just gave the marketing team an excuse to sell cute caribou plushies, which were _everywhere_ \- dangling from the ceiling, sitting atop the cash registers, filling boxes upon boxes in the back… basically anywhere there wasn't ice cream, there was a stuffed, huggable, googly eyed little deer.

All in all, not exactly a dream job, but pickers can't be choosers. Especially when the picker, aka me, had flunked out of twenty-some-odd interviews before finally landing this one. Don't get me wrong, Rayne and Riku had been great teachers. The problem had been with the pupil. No matter how hard they tried to iron out all my nervous habits and anxiety-induced rambling, a few quirks had still managed to slip through. This had led to no small number of awkward moments and don't-call-us-we'll-call-yous. But at last I'd managed to keep it together long enough in one interview to trick someone into hiring the trainwreck that was me.

Just my luck it had to be the frigging food court ice cream place with the stupidly short skirts.

It was my first day on the job. The guy who was training me had left me alone after setting me up with a handful of orientation videos to watch and telling me to come get him when I was done. I was seated in one dark corner of this small room that was part storage space, part break area. Before me was a tiny TV atop a VCR that could only be from the Stone Age. Seriously, I didn't even know such relics were still in circulation anymore. The videos were just about as dated and mind-numbing as you'd expect. They included one such gem as, now that I was a valued employee of Ice Palace, I wasn't just a part of team but a family. It also felt the need to cover the obvious, things like don't be rude, don't handle the product without washing your hands first, don't kiss, grope, or otherwise manhandle coworkers or customers, don't go getting yourself locked in a freezer… you know, things I would never, _ever_ do in the first place, not in a million years.

Suffice it to say, I was bored out of my skull.

That said, this was _way_ better than having to talk to an actual human being. So it probably wasn't hard to imagine my disappointment when the credits at last rolled on the final tape. Sighing, I rose from my chair and clicked off the ancient television set before turning to face the door across the room. My fellow employee that I needed to check in with now was somewhere on the other side of it.

Where the customers were.

Waiting.

_Lurking_.

I shuddered.

I then took the opportunity to fidget with my skirt, tugging at the hem a bit.

Note to self: use first paycheck to invest in some tights. This whole bare legs thing just was _not_ working for me.

Ugh, _why_ a mini skirt of all things?! I mean, come on, it was the _Ice_ Palace, shouldn't we be dressing more the part? I'm thinking Inuit attire, I'm talking fur-lined boots and layers upon layers of thick, fuzzy coats covering me from head to toe. But a _skirt?_ It just wasn't _realistic!_ If I were in a real castle made entirely of frost, I'd be freezing my rear off right about now!

I then adjusted the black cap with a blue bill atop my head that sported our cursive logo, complete with a teeny doodle of a palace, before tightening my ponytail that stuck out the hole in the back. I'd opted for that over my usual braid. Figured it would make it harder for me to fiddle with my hair when I got anxious.

Unfortunately, I had now run out of trivial (but one hundred percent _necessary_ ) ways to procrastinate. Guess there was no putting it off any longer. I slowly approached the door, watching it grow more ominous with every step that brought me closer to it. Halting in front of it, I reached for the knob. But then I stopped, hesitating before retracting my hand and looking back over my shoulder towards a second door on the opposite wall, a green _Exit_ sign glowing over it.

The door to freedom.

Perhaps it wasn't too late for me to follow my dreams and become a hermit. I could always buy a fake beard. No one would ever know the difference.

My eyes darted back and forth between the two doors, my breath becoming shallow and my heartrate quickening. Then, biting down on my lower lip, I took a step towards that _Exit_ sign and-

"There you are!"

I froze with a wince before turning my back on that tantalizing exit, instead facing my coworker who was now leaning in through the other door. He was tall with brown eyes and his head shaved bald beneath his own cap. A thin, black goatee wrapped around the friendly grin he was shooting my way as he now fully stepped into the room to join me, looking quite dapper in his vest and neatly ironed pants.

I chuckled nervously, clasping my hands behind my back. "Er, yeah… here I am."

Drat. So close!

"Was wondering if you'd gotten lost, figuring as how you should've been long done with those videos by now."

"Nope, was just… on my way, Lucius."

"Ah ah!" he chided, waggling a finger in my face before gesturing to his work attire. "When I'm in the uniform, it's Frozone."

I blinked. "...Fro...zone?"

He nodded solemnly. "Yup. Because when I'm on the clock, I'm in the zone." That last word was emphasized with a wide sweep of his outstretched hand before he tacked on dramatically, "The Frozen Zone."

"...I see."

He seemed to take great pride in his work.

I wondered if I would ever be that dedicated.

...or if I ever even really _wanted_ to be that dedicated.

"So, um… Mr Frozone… what's next?"

He jerked a thumb over his shoulder back towards the door he'd come in through. "Figured we could get you up front now, start familiarizing you with the space and equipment."

"R-really? So soon?" My fingers twitched, reaching for my braid before remembering it wasn't there. Instead I settled for crossing my arms. "You think I'm ready for that?"

Answer: A big fat no.

"Well, let's see here." He started ticking off fingers, "You've watched the videos, you've had the grand tour, you've-"

"No I haven't!" I said quickly, shaking my head. "Had the grand tour, that is."

"No? Well alright then." He stepped past me and further into the room, then stopped and pivoted around to face me, spreading his arms out to either side of him. "Here it is, in all its glory. Just breathe in that majesty."

This cramped break-slash-storage room was it, apparently. Besides the TV and VCR in one corner, most of it was filled with giant, industrial-grade fridges for housing all the ice cream. Plus a couple of large metal sinks, plus the aforementioned boxes upon boxes of reindeer plushies. Squeezed into one corner was a humble couch that'd seen better days, along with a small table with a couple rickety-looking chairs. A giant bulletin board hanging from one wall completed the look, covered in workplace guidelines, announcements, and different colored flyers.

"Oh." I pursed my lips to one side. "Very, ah… very majestic."

"Isn't it just?" he nodded, hands on his hips as he smiled broadly. "Welp, that's that. Now let's get you up to the registers to continue your training."

I hummed thoughtfully. "Maybe I should watch the videos one more time. Just to make sure, that… uh..."

Reason… reason… dear god, please, come up with a reason, _any_ reason!

"...that I... didn't... miss anything?"

He laughed. "You're thorough and detail oriented. I like that." He planted his hands on my shoulders and steered me towards the door of doom. "Feel free to rewatch those tapes on your own time, but for now, let's move on."

"But-"

He gave me a gentle but firm push and I stumbled through the door and straight into my own personal hell.

Alright, fine, maybe I was being a bit over dramatic. There weren't even any customers in line at the moment. Seemed like it was just after the lunch rush and most of the people had already eaten and cleared out. There were just a couple families left dotting the tables out there in the otherwise empty food court beyond our countertop.

Swallowing my nerves and inhaling deeply to calm myself, I glanced around my more immediate area. I _was_ a bit curious after all, seeing as how this was my first real time on _this_ side of the cash register. But really? There wasn't much to it. There was a giant frozen display proudly presenting a rainbow of different flavored ice cream. Beneath it behind the counter were some small metal doors that seemed to be some more refrigerated storage space. In one corner was this fancy looking ice cream machine, with stacks on stacks of empty cups and cones beside it. There were some large menus overhead on the back wall and beneath them, a snowman crudely painted onto the door that I had just been so unceremoniously shoved through. Then of course, those plastic "ice" walls and reindeer dolls overflowing from every crook and cranny that they could conceivably be crammed into.

That about summed it up. That, plus the burly blonde guy manning one of the registers that would be my second coworker.

He turned his head, giving me a look that admittedly wasn't quite a scowl, but wasn't exactly warm and inviting either.

I gulped and unconsciously took a step back, immediately bumping into something. Looking over my shoulder, that something turned out to be a some _one_ : Lu… erm, I mean, Frozone.

Hand on my shoulder once more, he guided me forward and I took a few reluctant steps closer to the other man. "Elsa, you remember Kristoff from earlier, right?"

I gave a weak nod and raised my hand in a tiny wave. "H-hi again."

He only continued to fix me with a dull stare.

"Oh yeah, you two are going to be fast friends, I can already tell," Frozone beamed. "Now Kristoff here is going to be taking over your training and showing you the ropes up here. There's a new shipment in back that I should get to sorting out, but just give a holler if you need me."

"Wait!" I snatched at his sleeve as he turned to leave through the back door. My eyes darted from him to Kristoff and back before I whispered, "Do you really have to go?"

I had actually been growing comfortable around him. He seemed nice.

This Kristoff guy on the other hand seemed, erm… how should I put this… shall we say, grumpy?

Frozone chuckled, tugging himself free of my grasp and patting me on the head. "I'm flattered, girl, but I'm a taken man. Honey is the light of my life and trust me, you do not want to get on that woman's bad side."

"Wha-?" I blinked a couple times. "No, that's not what I-"

Annnnnnd there he went, calling a cheerful, "Have fun, you two!" over his shoulder as he disappeared into the back.

Sighing, I turned to face Kristoff and was greeted once more by that same deadpan expression.

Oh yeah. So much fun.

Taking a cautious step towards him, I cleared my throat and rubbed my left elbow. "So… that Frozone… really seems to take his job seriously, huh?"

"...don't even get me started," he said flatly.

So he speaks.

Barely.

I tried again. "What do I call you? Kristoff okay? Or just Kris? ...Kristo?" I was met with total silence. "...Oh, maybe that's already short for something, like… Kristopher? Kristofel? Kris...toforos?" Mayday! Mayday! I was beginning to enter nervous babbling territory. Send help. "Or perhaps, oh! Do we all get theme names? Like Frozone? What would yours be? Are you the, uh… hmm, the, um… the Iceman?"

Face unchanged and dead serious, he said at last, "Oh yeah. That's me. The Iceman. I love ice. Ice is my life. I eat, drink, and breathe nothing but ice. At night, I go to my ice house, eat my ice dinner, tuck myself into my ice bed, and cuddle with a bag of ice like it's a teddy bear."

"...really?"

If possible, his eyelids drooped even further. "No."

"Oh."

I knew that.

He heaved a soft, grumbling huff. "Kristoff is fine. Let's go, new girl."

He left his station behind the cash register to walk over to the display housing the frozen tubs, slapping a hand down on top of the chilly glass. "Ice cream," he explained dryly. He then bent down to open one of the metal doors below, pulling out what appeared to be a plastic wrapped, solid bar of sugary sweetness on a stick. "More ice cream." He tossed it back in with the rest just like it, kicking the door shut. He then picked up a rounded, steel utensil. "Ice cream scoop. You know how to use one, right?"

"Ah," I brightened. "Yes, of course!"

"Congratz, you're at least as competent as a four-year-old."

Hey now, rude.

Returning the scoop to where he'd found it, Kristoff then walked over to the giant machine in the corner. As I approached it as well, I began to appreciate just how much of a monster this thing truly was with all its buttons, switches, levers, and tubes on it. It was actually kind of intimidating. What on earth could they all even possibly do?

"Combo soft serve/milkshake machine," Kristoff continued on in his bored monotone as he planted an elbow atop the thing, leaning against it. He pointed at a big lever on the left over one tube. "Ice cream." Next at another big lever, this one on the right over a second tube with some sort of gizmo sticking out of it. "Milkshakes." His index finger shifted down to three large buttons running down the bottom right corner in front, first indicating the top one. "Turns it on and off." Then the bottom button. "Flavor swapper."

"And this one?" My fingers drifted towards the middle button.

"No touchy," he lightly swatted my hand away. "That one makes it angry. And trust me, you won't like it when it's angry."

I tipped my head to one side. "...why would there even be a button like that?"

He shrugged, intoning airily, "No one knows."

I quirked an eyebrow at him, then shook my head, my gaze returning to that monstrosity of a machine. "What about all those other levers and switches on the side?"

"Woah, slow down, newbie. You gotta learn to crawl before you can walk. For now, just stick to the basics. Ice cream. Shakes. Off and on. Flavor," he pointed to each one in turn again as he listed them off before giving me yet another dull look. "Am I going too fast for you? Maybe you should be writing this down."

It was my turn for some eyelid droopage. "I think I got it."

"Good. You're ready for your first customer then. And as luck would have it," he pointed past me, "here he comes."

"What?!" I spun around on my heel. Some guy had just entered the food court on the opposite end from the Ice Palace, but was making a beeline straight for us.

Panic mode initiated. Hands? Clammy. Face? Blanched. Heart? Pounding. All systems a go.

"Relax, new girl." Kristoff slapped me on the back, forcing a tiny _oof_ out of me. "I know this dude, we all do around this place. He and his girlfriend are mallrats that'll spend hours here, visiting all the stores and making friends with everyone. You should have no problem. Total training wheels."

His words did nothing to ease my growing nerves and I must have been doing a terrible job of hiding it because he snorted, "You'll be fine. Just step up to the register." He waved a hand towards it.

I swallowed hard, then numbly walked over to it.

"Smile," he pointed to his own grin that he now had plastered on for show, looking remarkably strange on a man I had seen zero emotion from all day. I forced my own smile and he flinched. "Ehh, maybe not so much." I toned it down a bit. "Better. Now just say, 'Welcome to Ice Palace, how may I take your order?' and the rest should be a no brainer."

Easy for you to say, buddy.

Taking a small shaky breath, I looked away from him and towards the customer once more just as he closed in on the counter. He had bright blue eyes, brown spiky hair, and a huge grin that just about literally split his face in two.

Okay, Elsa, you can do this.

"Welcome to Ice Palace, how…"

Oh fudge, I'd already forgotten the line! My mind was drawing a complete blank. The _blankest_ of blanks.

"...uh…"

Panic, panic, panic!

"...how… you… order?"

Hi, yes, one stammering idiot at your service.

I heard the smack of Kristoff's facepalm before he whispered under his breath, "Eh, close enough."

Seemingly unfazed by my mental malfunction, the guy just continued to flash those pearly whites. "Hey there, could I get two bars of the Paopu Paradise ice cream please?"

"Ah… y-yes, right away!" I darted over to the frozen display case, picking up one of the scoops and reaching for the sliding glass door in back. However, I froze when I heard a throat clearing and turned to see Kristoff jerking a thumb towards the freezer space below.

...oh right, _bars_. He'd said he'd wanted bars of ice cream. Fumbling to put the scoop back, I bent down to open the cold door, located the stack labeled "Paopu Paradise" and snatched two off the top before straightening back up and thrusting them proudly over the counter into the customer's face.

Another throat clear.

I glanced at Kristoff again, who mouthed the word 'munny' at me.

...minor detail.

"Er, yes… that'll be, uh…" I stared down at one of the plastic-sheathed ice creams, spinning it around by the stick, as if looking for the price tag.

Kristoff groaned before tiredly commanding, "Cash register." I hastily moved to stand in front of it once more. He pointed to one of the keys. "Push that one." Done. "Now that one and that one." Done and done. A munny total appeared on the register's little black screen and he gestured for me to go on. I read off the amount and the customer, still sunny faced as ever, handed me the munny. To my credit, I only flinched slightly when the cash drawer noisily popped open, allowing the munny to be deposited.

After slamming it back shut, I looked to Kristoff again, worrying my bottom lip between my teeth. "Now?"

He closed his eyes and gave me a solemn nod.

Feeling my muscles relax slightly, I turned back to the customer, offering him his two ice creams once again.

"Thanks!" he chirped, taking them both in one hand and ripping the plastic off one before immediately chomping down hard into the frozen treat, making me wince.

Jeez, this guy must have had the teeth of a viking!

After swallowing the bite, he licked his lips and eyed me curiously. "You're new, right?"

"Gee, how did you ever guess?" Kristoff deadpanned. I merely turned my head to narrow my eyes up at him.

Ignoring the comment from the peanut gallery, the guy offered his free hand to me. "You'll probably be seeing me around a lot, so figure I should introduce myself. I'm Sora! Nice to meetcha!"

I hesitated before taking his hand gingerly and shaking it. "...Elsa. A pleasure."

He froze mid-lick of his ice cream bar, blinking at me. "Elsa?" Lowering his snack a little now, he cocked his head. "Hey, you just moved in with Riku and Ray, didn't you?"

My head rocked back at that. "How did you-?"

"Stalker," Kristoff stretched the word out in a low singsong.

Sora's eyes widened. "Wha? No, no, I know Riku! He's my cousin and my best bud! He'd mentioned renting out their spare room to an old gal pal of Ray's and that you were going through a bit of a rough patch, that's all!" That blinding grin was slowly returning. "Hey, if there's any way I can help out too, just let me know!"

"Oh." My brow furrowed. "Uh… thanks…"

...you complete and total stranger.

"Don't mention it! We're friends now!"

Ah. My mistake. We were friends.

Apparently.

"Anyway, gotta run," he waggled the second unopened bar slightly, "Kairi's waiting for me and she'll murder me if I let this melt! See ya around!" He waved good-bye to us over his shoulder as he walked off, happily slurping away at his own ice cream. I found myself absently returning the wave, one corner of my lips twitching up.

That guy? Bit of an oddball. But he seemed sweet.

"Not bad, newbie," I heard Kristoff say as he poked the bill of my Ice Palace cap down, making it cover my eyes.

"Really?" I asked, righting my hat and looking up at him. Surprise of surprises, he was actually smiling.

...okay, it wasn't so much a smile as it was a faint tightening of the mouth. But hey, I'll take it.

"Not great, either," he shrugged. "Not even remotely. But it's a start. You'll get better at it as you go. Now let's cover-"

"Yo, Kristoff!"

Recognizing Frozone's voice, we turned to see him poking a head out the door to the back. "Could you give me a quick hand with moving a particularly heavy box?"

"Sure thing, be there in just a sec," Kristoff called. Frozone (gah, it will never _not_ be weird calling him that) nodded before disappearing once more.

My insides shriveled somewhat. "You're leaving me by myself up here?"

He gave my arm a light, reassuring pat. "I'll be real quick, promise. It's dead right now, so you probably won't even have to deal with a single customer before I get back. If you do, don't worry, you're a natural. Just take their order, easy-peasy. And if you need help, tell the customer to wait a moment and come get me."

I once again was reaching for my braid. It once again was not there. "What if they don't want to wait a moment?"

"Just tell 'em we're out of whatever flavor they want and say 'Let me see if we have any more in the back.' Got it?"

"I guess so…"

"Good! Be back before you know it." He jogged off and out the door, but a second later, he was leaning back through it again. "Remember, you say…" he twirled a finger sideways, prompting me.

"...let me see if we have any more in the back?" I ventured in a tiny voice.

He gave me a thumbs up. "Perfect." Then he was gone again.

I moved to stand at the counter once more, inhaling and exhaling slowly. "Let me see if we have any more in the back," I repeated, muttering it softly to myself as I eyed the food court warily.

He was right though, it was basically a ghost town out there. Everyone had already eaten for lunch and had all probably packed themselves back into the various stores by now. Plus it was a weekday. Thank goodness my first day hadn't been on the weekend, I most certainly was _not_ ready for the stampede of shoppers that would have come with that! As it was right now, there were only a few folks out there milling around for an afternoon snack and luckily none of them seemed to be craving ice cream. So I could maybe relax… at least for the moment.

Today… actually wasn't going too bad so far. The job itself didn't seem all that terrible. I was getting along with my coworkers, even that Kristoff fellow. He'd acted all tough at first, but seemed actually somewhat friendly underneath that cool exterior. I'd even helped my first customer! And with minimal mistakes, no less!

Maybe… maybe I could actually do this!

Okay sure, was I still a bit of a tangled ball of anxiety inside? Yes. Would I continue to be with each new customer? Oh, without a doubt. But with time, maybe, hopefully, it would lessen? At least somewhat?

A girl could dream anyway.

Regardless, I was doing it. The whole independence thing. Taking control of my life. I still had a long way to go, but this little ice cream job was the first small step. If I could do this, then maybe, just maybe there wasn't much I couldn't do. It wouldn't be easy, and there was still a lot more for me to figure out. Like, a _lot_ more. But I could and would. I just needed to believe in myself.

Feeling just a bit more on the chipper side now - an emotion that I hadn't truly felt in a long time - I glanced around the food court again, really taking it all in this time, especially the other brightly colored restaurants that formed our neighbors.

There was The Big Olive, which served greek food. Currently a woman with heavy lavender eyeshadow and thick brown hair tied back into a long ponytail with curly fringe stood behind the register, idly flipping through a magazine. Then there was a chinese place called Mushu's Kingdom with a cute little red dragon at the tail end of the logo. Next, there was Beast Burgers. I'd thought Kristoff cranky, but the big, hairy guy working there at the moment made Kristoff look like a cuddly puppy. Right beside that was a Cajun/Creole-style restaurant called Frog Legs, followed by a place called Sugar Rush, which looked like it served mostly pastries and any other sweet that wasn't ice cream. Judging by the several large signs they had up, they seemed particularly proud of their cinnamon buns, which looked to be more frosting than bread.

Then there was a Lucky Cat Café, which was basically a coffee empire that had a shop located practically on every last street corner in the universe. I recalled that's where Riku had purchased my mocha from the day I had officially moved in with Rayne and him. He'd probably bought it from this exact one that I was looking at right now. The mall was only a couple short blocks away from our apartment after all, which made it extra convenient that I'd managed to get the job here.

At that moment, I could see a woman with shoulder-length blue hair working the register while her coworker, a younger guy with short, messy blonde hair, blended a frothy drink nearby. They both were wearing green visors with felt feline ears sticking out the top. The blonde gave the grey cat with stripes perched atop their muffin display counter a quick pat on the head as he passed it by to reach the awaiting customer. It was only when I saw the creature's tail twitch that I realized that was an actual living, breathing cat. Huh. A pet? Kept in the food court? How odd. It must have been very well trained. Probably just napped in that single spot all day, every day.

Last but not least, directly across the way from the Ice Palace was a Pizza Planet, its green logo sporting a giant, round pizza pie with a Saturn-like ring wrapped around it. It tied neck-and-neck with our ice cream parlour for most over the top decorations. The interior was designed to look like the inside of a UFO and was littered with toy rocket ships and little green alien squeeze-dolls everywhere. Stationed at the cash register was a girl with short raven hair, clapping and cheering her coworker on.

Said coworker was a tall, lanky guy who, like his fellow employee, was decked out in a dark grey polo with red trimmed sleeves and collar, accompanied by a pair of black fingerless gloves and khakis underneath his black, snuggly-tied full-body apron. His long, wild crimson hair trailed down past the nape of his neck and spilled out in spikes over his open-topped red visor. He was grinning cockily as he spun not one, but two massive discs of pizza dough, one on each index finger.

He tossed one up high into the air before catching it and starting it spinning on his fingertip again. Then he was using some sort of wizardry to send the dough half rolling, half flying across his shoulders as he swapped the other disc to his left hand, freeing up his right to catch the first saucer of dough just in time and keep it whirling, much to his coworker's delight.

It was as he was giving one of the circular slabs of dough another toss up that he seemed to realize he'd gained a second audience member. His eyes shifted to meet mine and then widened as his whole body locked up. The disc still balanced on his finger spun off and toppled to the ground.

As for its airborne twin?

_Splat!_

Right on top of his head, covering his whole face.

A very unladylike snort escaped me, followed by a burst of long and uncontrollable laughter that I tried to smother behind my fingers. I was still laughing when he lifted the dough enough to peek one eye at me, expression unreadable as he slowly raised his other hand in a small twitch of a wave.

My giggling, along with my heart, abruptly stopped as I gasped, paled, squeaked and ducked down behind the counter.

...I'd laughed at him.

Oh my god, I can't _believe_ I'd _laughed_ at him!

Heart thudding in my ears now, I stayed in a low crouch in my hiding spot, trembling hands gripping the edge of the countertop above me as my tongue dried to literal sandpaper.

Had he heard me laughing? Had he _seen_ me laughing? What am I saying, of _course_ he saw! That's why he'd waved!

Oh dear lord, what did the wave mean? Was it an angry wave? An 'I see you laughing at me, jerkface' wave? A 'How dare you mock me thusly' wave? A 'You have besmirched my honor, villain, now we must duel to the death' wave? No, no, no, I didn't know how to duel! What kind of duel would it even be? Pistols at dawn? I knew nothing about using a frigging pistol! Or any gun for that matter! I was dead! I was toast! I was-

Wait! No! Stop! Get a hold of yourself, woman! Gah, calm down and stop letting your imagination run wild with completely ridiculous notions!

I screwed my eyes shut, breathing in deep through my nose and holding it as I counted to ten before releasing.

It had probably just been a normal wave. A 'Hello there, yes, I'm a dork who drops pizza dough on my head' wave. He probably wasn't mad, nor did he want to seek vengeance in blood. He was probably now just standing there, confused by the crazy weirdo who'd dived for cover behind her counter like she was in a war zone under enemy fire.

Alright. Time to pull myself back up. This was salvageable. Just stand and… I don't know… wave back? Yeah, that sounded like a plan. Okay, you got this.

My legs tensed as I prepared to stand once more. In three… two…

What'd I'd failed to consider, as I'd be learning in two frightfully short seconds, was that there was another possibility. Another string of events that could have and, in fact, _were_ set in motion the moment I'd dropped into hiding. That instead of just staying behind his own counter, the redhead had gotten curious about my odd reaction and had decided to take it upon himself to investigate. Therefore, he'd announced to his coworker that he was taking his ten, allowing him to leave his little pizzeria and cross the food court on a course heading straight for the ice cream shop directly across the way.

I have to wonder… and I mean really, _really_ wonder… what were the odds?

The odds that he'd stop in front of the counter _right_ across from where I was concealed.

The odds that he'd be leaning over it to look down at me _exactly_ as I was springing back up to stand.

The odds that his lips were positioned _just_ perfectly for my own to come crashing into his as I looked up.

That's right.

I'd frigging kissed him.

...Hey, universe? It's me, Elsa. If you're listening, now would be a really great time for me to spontaneously develop the ability to rewind time by, say, I don't know… thirty seconds so I can make completely different life choices.

...No? Not happening?

Well fudge.

* * *

_**Author's note:**_ _Ice cream flavor names! I'm not gonna miss an opportunity to steal all those ice creams from BBS, but come on, this was Sora, so OF COURSE I had to make up something that was Paopu flavored for him! I imagine the description of the Paopu Paradise flavor on the menu is something like: "_ _Made with real Paopu fruit straight from Destiny Islands with little star sprinkles swirled in! Legend has it if two people share this ice cream, their destinies become intertwined."_

_Thank you so much for reading and to those of you who have shared with me your feelings on this story so far! If you have any friendly feedback, I would really appreciate hearing it!_


	4. Chapter 4

So there I was.

Liplocked with a complete and total stranger.

A _ridiculously_ and _obscenely_ attractive stranger.

A fact I hadn't been fully aware of nor really all that inclined to notice until right then, while stuck in said liplock.

I think it's some sort of universal law, actually. That the more one embarrasses themselves in front of another person, the more insanely beautiful that person ends up being. I don't make the rules. It's just science.

These were the critical thoughts that were running through my head in that second.

One single second. That's how long the kiss lasted. Short when you really think about it in the grand scheme of things. But at the time? It had felt like an absolute eternity. One miserable, mortifying _eternity_. It'd seem that while I hadn't randomly gained the ability to reverse time in that moment like I had silently prayed for, it was a distinct possibility that I had somehow magically learned how to slow it down, but only to make humiliating incidents such as this last excruciatingly long.

Worst. Super power. Ever.

Green, by the way.

The color of his eyes. In case you had been wondering.

I hadn't been. Not particularly. But it was kind of hard not to notice when those eyes were all in your face and bright and vibrant and-

...was that… _guyliner?_

I'd heard of such a thing, but I'd never seen it in practice until now. It actually looked kind of amazing. Wow, how did he get the wings to look so… so swoopy and-

Wait. Hold up. I smelled pepperoni.

I suppose that made sense. He _did_ work at a pizza place, after all.

There was the scent of flour too.

That also tracked, what with him having just dropped dough all over his head.

What was a bit of a head scratcher however was the hint of cinnamon added into the mix. Had to wonder where exactly that one was coming from. I mean, it's not exactly a common pizza topping. Not that I was aware of anyway.

Oh, and his lips? Soft. Like, super, _duper_ soft. Dang, did he use moisturizer on those puppies? ...was that even a thing? Did people actually moisturize their lips? I don't know about that, seems odd, but maybe-

I finally snapped out of it. The painfully longest second of my entire life at last came to an end and time sped back up to normal. I jerked my head back, hands flying up to clasp over my mouth, my eyes round and horrified, my face burning and breaking heat records across the globe. His own eyes were wide as he blinked at me a couple times before settling back on his heels in a daze.

_Oh god, oh god, oh god…_

What had I done?

No, seriously. What had I just frigging _done?!_

He was the first one to break the roaring, deafening silence as he began, "H-"

"LET ME SEE IF WE HAVE ANY MORE IN THE BACK!" I blurted out loudly over him before I even realized what my mouth was doing, causing him to stagger a small step backwards.

That hung in the air between us for a couple awkward seconds.

And then I bolted.

One second I was staring at his dumbfounded, stupidly gorgeous face, the next I was in the back room, slamming the door shut behind me and pressing my back up against it, hyperventilating and staring at my two coworker's dumbfounded, not-quite-so-stupidly gorgeous faces.

…did that just really happen? Was this even real life? No way… there was just no _possible_ way! This had to be a dream. A terrible, cruel dream! One that I was ready to wake up from now in my old bed in my old room in my old life, because the real world? Too much for me! This had been a bad idea, I'd been kidding myself, I couldn't handle it! I may not have been happy in my old life, but at least it was safe and predictable and everything stayed the same and nothing happened, nothing like… like…

Groaning, I squeezed my eyes shut as the last few agonizing minutes did an instant replay in my mind. I rolled away from the door over to the wall beside it, hiding my face against the cool, concrete surface.

This was a nightmare. All I needed to do was wake up.

I banged my head against the concrete.

_Thump_.

Wake up…

_Thump_.

Wake up!

_Thump_.

For the love of all that is good and merciful, please, _please_ wake up already!

I peeked one eye open.

Much to my dismay, the sight that greeted me was still that of the bland grey storage room wall as opposed to my old, safe fluffy pillow back in my old, safe warm bed.

It wasn't a dream.

Drat.

And now my forehead hurt. Great. Just… great.

Another groan escaped me as I flipped back around, still using the wall for support as I slid down to sit on the ground, hugging my knees to my chest. Frozone and Kristoff had put down the large box they had been carrying between them and were now kneeling down in front of me. Their faces were twisted in confusion and concern, their lips were moving, but I couldn't hear what they were saying to me.

It just kept playing on loop over and over again in my head.

Had I really just said _that_? After doing… _that?!_ To the poor, unsuspecting _pizza guy?!_

He was going to think I'd escaped from an insane asylum! That'd I'd planned that. That'd I'd plotted and possibly even schemed. That that was my MO, to lure pure, innocent men into my carefully laid traps before I pounced and-

Dear lord, I was a sexual predator.

They were going to make me watch the harassment orientation video again.

Would it be enough? Or was it too late for me? Was I too far gone and out of control? Men everywhere, see me and despair! Cower and flee, lest I corrupt thy virtue and-

"I kissed him," the words came tumbling out of my mouth before I'd even realized it and with them, sound came rushing back to my ears.

"You _what?!_ " Frozone yelped as he shot back up to his feet, at the same time Kristoff asked, "Kissed who? A customer? What happened?"

"I- He- It… Dough!" I all but shouted the word, striking up a finger, my eyes darting wildly between the two of them. "There was dough! Flipping, flying! And then, it wasn't. And- his head! Oh gosh, his head, it was- I started laughing! I mean, wouldn't you? Who _wouldn't_ have, it just was too- but then there was the wave! Oh my god, the _wave!_ So I did the only thing I could, obviously… I hid! But then, that was just… it was _so_ stupid! So I stood back up, but, but… _he_ was there and _I_ was there and we _both_ were there and it… it just… It. Just. Happened!"

The deluge came to an abrupt and blessed end and a hush fell. A long one at that, punctuated only by my haggered panting. My coworkers just stared at me unblinking for a few seconds before exchanging looks between each other.

"Did you, uh… follow any of that?" Kristoff mumbled out of the corner of his mouth.

"Not really," Frozone shook his head, stepping over to the door. He cracked it open an inch to squint through, before brightening a bit. "Oh, that's not a customer! That's just one of the pizza dudes from across the way."

I furrowed my brow up at him, shaking my head, "Does that really make it any _better?!_ "

His fingers scratched under his cap before he shrugged. "...guess not."

I stiffened. "Wait… he's _still_ out there? Oh god…" I buried my face into my knees, arms covering my head as I tightened my ball formation. I couldn't face him, I just couldn't! Please just kill me now. Put me out of my misery, I beg of you. "Tell him something… anything. Please, just… make him go away!" Then I gasped, head jerking back up once more, "Tell him I don't work here!"

Frozone stared at me blankly. "...you want me to tell him we left the storefront unmanned, allowing some lunatic to climb behind the counter, steal and get dressed in one of our uniforms and pretend she worked here, all without us realizing it?"

"No, no, that's not what I meant. Please, that'd just be silly," I waved him off. Pft, what a ridiculous idea. "No, I meant tell him that no one _like_ me works here. Tell him that… that I was just a figment of his imagination! Yeah, that it was all in his head! Or, oh! Tell him that I was a ghost!"

Totally plausible.

At least, to my somewhat addled, panicked brain, it was.

...I may have been a bit logically compromised at the moment.

His eyelids drooped. "Yeah, no, I'm not doing that."

My shoulders slumped at that. But then I perked up again as I seized on another idea. "Then tell him I've left the country!"

"...left?" Kristoff cocked an eyebrow at me. "Past tense? As in you've already crossed the border? ...in the space of five minutes?"

I nodded my head rapidly. "Yes! I'm already in France! Or Arabia! Ooo, Norway!"

Sighing, Frozone squatted down in front of me once more. "Listen, if this guy is harassing you or… if he attacked-"

"What?!" I burst out in horror before quickly shaking my head. "No! No, it was all me! _My_ mouth was the offending party here! His lips were just innocent bystanders! But it was an accident, a mistake, I swear! I didn't mean to-"

"Alright, alright, I believe you," he raised a hand, gesturing for me to settle down. "I'm still not sure I totally understand what exactly went down, but… this all just sounds like one big misunderstanding. I'll go talk to him and see if I can get him to leave," he said gently as he rose.

Feeling relief flood my chest, I raised my hands over my bowed head, pressing my palms together. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"Yeah, yeah, just… try not to let it happen again," he mumbled over his shoulder before disappearing through the door.

Wonderful! Problem solved!

...for now, anyway.

I moaned, leaning my head back against the wall and hiding my face in my hands.

I still had to deal with the fact that he worked at the Pizza Planet directly opposite of me. That'd I'd probably have to see him every day, or close to. That'd he probably try to talk to me and want an explanation for the… _thing_ I did. I didn't even know if I _could_ explain it. I had a hard enough time making small talk with people. And this? So _not_ small! Not even close! Ugh, what was I even going to do the next time I saw him? I had no idea. Absolutely none. Was crumbling to dust and scattering on the wind a viable option? No, probably not.

A tiny whimper escaped me.

"Aww, why so glum?" a very dopey, but very familiar voice asked.

Eyebrows knitting together, I dragged my hands down my face, peeking out between my fingertips.

One of those little reindeer plushies was in my face, being held aloft by Kristoff. Using a finger to bob the stuffed animal's head up and down, he continued on in that same goofy warble, "Turn that frown upside down! Cheer up! Things aren't as bad as they seem."

I just gave him a dull stare.

"When I'm feeling down, I like to sing a song and-"

"Kristoff," I grumbled, folding my arms atop my knees.

He tipped the dolls head to one side. "Who's Kristoff? I'm Sven and I'm here to brighten your day and-"

"Kristoff," I interjected a second time, eyelids drooping now as I said flatly, "Please make the reindeer stop talking to me."

"Got it," he immediately dropped the idiotic voice as he tossed the plushie over his shoulder.

"Thank you." I then sighed, cradling my face into my arms.

It'd been sweet of him to try to comfort me, but…

...I think I'd preferred it more when he was a bit of a grump.

* * *

"Wait," Rayne froze, her reflection's gaze meeting mine in the mirror. Eyes dancing and voice quivering slightly as she bit back a grin, she asked, "I'm sorry, but you did _what_ now?"

I grimaced, looking down at my lap and shifting uncomfortably. "Please don't make me say it again."

"Oh my _god!_ " Now she erupted with laughter, making me twitch in my seat.

My face warmed for what must have now been the thousand and twenty-sixth time that day (oh yes, I'd been keeping count) and I released a tiny huff, glancing back up at her reflection. "I fail to see what's so funny."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she waved one hand, trying to muffle her giggles behind the other and failing miserably. She at last managed to sober somewhat, saying, "I get it though, I really do. You want to earn them fat tips. But sweetie, you're supposed to suck _up to_ the customers, not suck _face with_ them!" She spluttered and broke down once more.

I narrowed my eyes, heaving a sigh through my nose.

Ah, having the loving care and support of a dear friend.

Wonder what that's like.

Must be nice.

I had gotten home not too long ago from my disastrous first day. Thankfully, Frozone had taken pity on me, letting me hide in the back for the remainder of my shift and help him with getting the rest of that new shipment sorted out. But tomorrow I wouldn't be so lucky. My insides were already twisting into a million knots at the very idea. Sleep? Ha! Like I'd be getting any of _that_ tonight.

Rayne and I were now in my bedroom. By now all of the baby stuff had been cleared out and the room was looking pretty bare. Not like I had a lot of munny (aka _none_ ) to decorate with. But hopefully that'd be rectified soon and I could start making the space feel a little more homey… a little more _me_. For now, there was the bed they'd already had in there, now complete with a quilt comforter with various patterns and shades of blue - sort of a "house warming" gift from Rayne and Riku. As for the rest of the furniture, they'd introduced me to a thing called curb shopping, out of which we'd managed to find me a free wardrobe and dresser, both obviously old and a little nicked but otherwise serviceable, as well as a vanity with a large mirror attached and an accompanying chair.

It was at that vanity that I now currently sat, with Rayne standing behind me while she brushed my hair. Or, rather… _had_ been brushing. At the moment, she was a bit otherwise preoccupied with her chuckling at my expense.

"Why exactly are we doing this again?" I muttered through my teeth.

"Hm?" she wiped at the corners of her eyes, finally settling down enough to resume carefully stroking the brush through my long, pale strands. "Oh! Well, since jellybean here," she patted her tummy, "might be a girl, I gotta prepare! And Riku's majestic mane is not around at the moment, so who else am I gonna practice on? Besides, it's soothing. It'll help make you feel better."

...which, okay, it kind of was.

She shrugged, "Plus, brushing hair is a time honored tradition of girl talk."

My nose crinkled slightly. "This is girl talk?"

She gave me a pointed look. "We're discussing kissing boys, what do you think?"

My shoulders slumped, "Ugh, don't remind me."

One corner of her lips twitched up and she pinched my cheek. "Lookit you, already making friends on your first day, I'm so proud!"

Lightly swatting her hand away, I scoffed. "I know I'm a bit clueless when it comes to this whole being around people thing but last time I checked, what I did was _not_ the socially acceptable way to make a new friend."

"You're right. My mistake." She smirked, "I should have said _boy_ friend."

I paled. "Boyfriend? Oh no, certainly not. He definitely thinks I have a few screws loose now... That I'm a total freakshow. He's probably just as mortified as I am. Beyond maybe demanding I explain myself and that I apologize, he's not going to want to have anything to do with me."

"You kidding?" she quirked an eyebrow. "You've seen yourself, right? Girl, you're a total knockout. That boy is probably praising Aphrodite for blessing him with the divine gift that was your sweet, sweet lips."

I groaned, my hands wringing the hem of my skirt. Now commencing blush number one thousand and twenty-seven. "This is all just _so_ humiliating. I wish I could just disappear! Just… find a deep dark pit somewhere to dive into and get lost miles below the earth's surface and… and discover an underground kingdom of mole people! And they'd welcome me with open arms and accept me as one of their own to live out the rest of my days in peace… that is of course, until I inevitably kiss one of _them_ on accident because, let's face it, I have a taste for it now, the beast has been awoken, this dark urge cannot be controlled, so then _they'll_ banish me down an even deeper, darker pit where I'll find the _mole people's_ mole people and-"

"Elsa," she bonked me on the head with the flat of the bristled implement.

"Right. Babbling. Sorry," I winced, hanging my head. "Maybe...maybe I should just quit." The hairbrush stilled again, this time as Rayne fixed me with a dull stare. I sighed, "No, I know, it'd be pathetic to give up after only working one day, and over something so silly. Besides, I… need to stop running away from my problems and start facing them head on."

She smiled and the combing began again. "Good girl. Sorry," she murmured the last part as she caught a snag, eliciting a soft hiss from me. "Now stop changing the subject. I want all the juicy deets on Romeo. Spill."

Ugh, I _really_ just wanted to forget the whole thing ever happened. But there was no getting out of this, it seemed. Might as well get it over with. "Well… he works right across from me and-"

"Wait, you mean at the Pizza Planet?" At my nod, she pressed, "Was he blonde?"

I frowned. "No, redhead."

Her eyes widened. "Aw snap, you kissed _Lea?!"_

...Lea?

Both eyebrows shooting up my forehead, I blinked. "I don't know, maybe?"

Annnnnnnd there she went, exploding into another fit of laughter.

I wished Anna were here. She never would have-

...oh, who am I kidding? She would have been cracking up twice as hard.

Reaching for a lock of my hair to twist at, I asked, "Do you... know him?"

"That mall used to be practically a second home to me, I know almost everyone that works there. Oh gosh, trust me, you have nothing to worry about. Lea's a giant sweetheart, he'll understand that you're just a total spazz and it's all a big mistake. Just talk to him."

My eyes darted to the left. "I think I'd rather take my chances with the mole people."

"Oh shush. Just do it, you'll be fine, I promise." She fell silent for a couple more sweeps of the hairbrush. "Soooooo…" she drew the word out before conspiratorially whispering, "what was it like?"

My forehead wrinkled. "...what was what like?"

"You know…" she waggled her eyebrows at me, "Laying some sweet sugar on that big red tree of a man."

Make that one thousand and twenty-eight. I clasped my hands over my ears, "Gah, please tell me you did _not_ just say that!"

She snorted, "What? Don't get me wrong, I could kiss those pillow lips of Riku's all day-"

"I really didn't need to hear that."

Rayne rolled her eyes. "But there's nothing wrong with having a little curiosity! So stop holding out on me already, girl. I want to know _everything_."

Averting my gaze, I grumbled, "I was kind of too busy having a frigging heart attack to really pick up on any details."

Alright, so, not _technically_ true. Like, at all. It had actually been kind of distressing how painfully aware I was of everything teeny-tiny little thing in that one now infamous second that had stretched on to infinity and beyond.

But… I really, _really_ didn't want to talk about it.

I noticed Rayne eyeing me suspiciously, not quite buying it. Before she could press further however, I cleared my throat and said, "Could we… _please_ just talk about something else now?"

"Fine," she harrumphed. Her lips pursed to one side, then, "...have you called them yet?"

Twitching, I muttered, "Something other than that."

"No, no," her reflection pinned me with a stern look. "You don't get to do that. I already let you wriggle your way out of the last topic, _which_ by the way we're gonna be circling back around to." Great. "But really, you need to talk to them and just get it over with already. Rip the bandaid off. They're probably worried sick."

I exhaled slowly through my nose. "I know, I just… was giving them more time to cool off."

"It's been a week, how much longer do you think they really need?"

I shrugged, "Oh, I dunno, I was thinking maybe… sometime next century?" Another bonk to my head from the hairbrush. "Ow! Could you not?"

She crossed her arms and frowned down at me. "Call them."

Yeesh, the child wasn't even born yet and Rayne already had her Disapproving Mom Stare down pat. I could tell you now, that kid wasn't going to be getting away with _anything_.

"I don't even have a phone."

She fished her mobile out her pocket and slapped it down on the vanity. " _Call_ them."

Gnawing on my lower lip, I slowly reached for the phone, resting my hand over it. A couple heartbeats of hesitation, then I was pushing it away. "Tomorrow, okay? I… I'll call them tomorrow."

Her eyes narrowed, but at last she relented. "Alright then. I'm gonna hold you to that though, missy. Now," she set the brush down beside her phone and gathered my hair into two separate clumps, one just behind either ear, "I'm envisioning pigtails. How cute would that be?" She beamed at me in the mirror. "What do you think?"

"Uh… sure?"

As she happily set to work, my thoughts wandered back to making that dreaded phonecall.

Tomorrow…

That's what I'd told myself yesterday. And the day before that. And the day before _that_. So I certainly hoped she wasn't going to hold me to it.

But who knows… maybe I actually meant it this time…

...eh… probably not.

* * *

_**Author's note:** _ _Gosh, I know it sucks that we're already 4 chapters in and Lea hasn't even gotten to talk yet. Don't worry, he starts talking next chapter! It's all small and slow at first, but once he has a chance to really get going, he doesn't shut up, I promise xD_

_Thank you so much for reading and to those of you who have shared with me your feelings on this story so far! If you have any friendly feedback, I would really appreciate hearing it!_


	5. Chapter 5

I had perfected a system.

A system for avoiding eye contact with him.

You know… _him_.

He whose lips that _my_ lips were last seen canoodling with.

That is to say, Lea.

It'd been a few days now since the little kiss incident - or Kissident, as I had taken to calling it in my head. I had not listened to Rayne's advice, so had yet to talk to him. I'd tried, believe me, I really had tried. But just one look at him and the Kissident would flash through my brain once again in high-def and stereo surround sound, causing my heart to leap up into my throat and strangle me, making getting any words out impossible. I just couldn't… I couldn't do it. No way.

But that's where my system came in! So flawless, yet so simple.

All I had to do was… not look at him.

As one might guess, that presented a bit of a challenge, given that Pizza Planet was straight across from us and given that, due to some cruel, sadistic twist of fate, his shifts seemed to almost always line up with mine. But to someone with my determination and ingenuity, not to mention years upon years of experience of avoiding human interaction like the plague? No sweat.

He looks my way? Oh hey, that ice cream cone I was getting for this customer is just right for blocking his line of sight to me. A glance from him? Man, the lights in here sure seem extra bright today, I'll just pull the bill of my Ice Palace cap waydown to shield my eyes. So much as a glimpse out of the corner of his eye? Gee, Kristoff, you make the perfect boulder for me to hide behind while I focus really hard on not existing. Or, oopsie, looks like I dropped something, time to kneel down and spend, say, I don't know, the next five minutes picking it up.

But always, _always_ look carefully before standing again. I'd learned my lesson there. No need for a repeat of the Kissident, thank you very much.

And if all else failed and I caught even the slightest hint that he might be out from behind his counter and heading my way? Whew, look at the time, I need to go on my break! Let me just slip into the back room and chill there until the coast's all clear once more.

What'd I tell you? Foolproof.

Not to mention totally and one hundred percent mature. Look at me adult like a pro.

Hey, don't knock it. It was the only way I'd managed to survive the past several days.

In any case, it was currently late afternoon. The heavy chimes of the mall's iconic clock tower echoed throughout the all but deserted food court. By now, I was almost getting used to the rushes that came with lunchtime. Did nervous energy still course through my veins the whole time we were slammed with customers? Yes, but it wasn't too bad. Turns out people are pretty friendly when you're the one handing out the ice cream and feeding their sugar addiction. Plus, ever since the Kissident, I almost preferred the busy times. The throng of people was just one more thing for me to hide behind.

But now that it was dead and I had no such cover, I had to resort to one of my more drastic measures…

...a scoop.

One eye shut, I held the little metal contraption up, examining it closely. For stains, mind you. Having sparkling, clean, spotless tools of the trade at my disposal was _very_ important to me. Your health and safety are my top priority, dear customers.

And the fact that I was lining the scoop up perfectly so as to blot out a certain redhead from my view? Well now, that was just a bonus. Purely coincidence.

...wait… was he even still there? ...it _had_ been several minutes since I had begun, ahem, "inspecting" the ice cream scoop. Had he really not moved from that spot? Maybe he was sneakier than I'd realized and had managed to somehow slip out from behind his counter without me noticing. Even now, as I stood here completely oblivious, he could be stalking, prowling, creeping up on me, about to catch me unawares.

I gulped, suddenly nervous. Maybe a quick look would be good… just to be sure the green eyed devil hadn't escaped his pizza-scented, space-age themed domain.

Licking my dry lips, I carefully squeezed the scoop's handles together, making it split down the jagged middle _just_ enough for me to peek through. Immediately, my muscles relaxed and I sighed in relief. Yup, still there, assisting a customer at the register.

I loosened my grip so the utensil snapped shut again, blocking him from my sight once more. Now the only person I could see at the little pizzeria was his coworker, a short, blonde guy currently pulling a pizza out of the massive oven and-

Wait a minute…

My eyebrows knit together.

Hadn't Blondie there been working over at the Lucky Cat Café before? My gaze darted over to the little coffee place a few spaces over. There the blue haired chick was again, but today she was accompanied by a big guy with slicked back, choppy brown hair.

Huh. Perhaps Pizza Planet offered better benefits and he'd jumped the java ship to sling dough instead? Or maybe-

"Hey! Are you even listening to me?"

I squeaked, fumbling the scoop for a few seconds before managing to get a firm grasp on it once more, hiding it behind my back as I whipped around to face the voice.

Riku stood on the other side of the countertop, arms crossed and eyelids drooping.

I managed a weak smile for him. "Yes?"

One silver eyebrow quirked. "Then what was I saying?"

"You, er… wanted ice cream?"

"Okay, what _kind_ of ice cream?" he rolled his eyes.

Oof, this one would be a little trickier.

Fingers fidgeting with scoop, I pursed my lips to one side. "...the cold kind?"

There was a snort from Frozone beside me as he counted the register. "She's not wrong."

Riku, on the other hand, merely narrowed his eyes. Somehow, I got the feeling he was not nearly as amused. Just a hunch.

Taking a step forward, I said, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! Please, tell me what I can get for you, I promise I'm listening now."

He fixed me with that dull stare for a few more seconds before sighing and shaking his head. "Three scoops of the Spark Lemon on a cone and a bar of the Royalberry."

"Coming right up!" I immediately set to work, grabbing a cone off the stack, sliding open the frosted glass, and plunging the (now thoroughly vetted by me to be completely hygienic and immaculate) scoop into the giant bowl of the lemony yellow ice cream. It was just after I had plopped down the first orb onto the cone and was going to dig up the next one when I spotted it at my peripheral. A flash of that familiar blazing crimson. Aka You-Know-Who's hair. Thankfully, he hadn't budged from where he was last spotted, but still… a chilling reminder.

I hesitated for a heartbeat before stabbing down into the ice cream once more. Then my gaze shifted up to Riku briefly before flicking back down with a frown. "Um… do you think maybe you could… scooch a few inches over to your left? If you don't mind?"

His brow furrowed, then he glanced over his shoulder towards the Pizza Planet. Putting two and two together and releasing another sigh, he sidled over, obstructing Lea from my vision.

"Thanks," I smiled, carving out a nice big scoop for him.

"...you haven't talked to him yet, have you?"

I winced, but said nothing as I plonked down the second ball on top of the first.

His face softened, "Well I _did_ talk to him and-"

"Wait, you did _what?!_ " I snapped, forcing Riku to jerk back in surprise. My blood ran cold. Oh, not good, this was so _not_ good! I groaned, "No! No, no, _no!_ You talked to him?! How could you _talk_ to him? Gah, now he's going to know I've been avoiding him!"

A snort escaped him. "You think he didn't know that already?"

"Of course not!"

"Says the girl who was doing this not two minutes ago." He snatched the steel scoop out of my hand, twisting around to hold it out in Lea's direction.

"Stop that!" I lunged forward, stretching across the counter in a desperate attempt to get the utensil back, all while miraculously keeping the small stack of ice cream balanced atop its cone. However, he simply hopped back out of my reach. Shoulders slumping, I looked to Frozone. "Little help?"

"Oh-ho no," he chuckled, not looking up from tallying the munny. "I'm staying outta this."

Gee, thanks.

Riku was still holding out the scoop as I looked to him again and hissed, "He's going to see you!"

He bit back a grin. "And when you were doing it, you were, what, invisible?"

"No, but… but…" I released an agitated huff, "two people doing it is just weird!"

"Trust me, _one_ person doing it was weird."

With a tiny growl, I abandoned trying to get the stupid scoop back and instead straightened up to start pacing. "I still can't believe you talked to him," I thrust the cone at him accusingly as I passed him on my little patrol back and forth. "I had a plan, it was a good plan, the _perfect_ plan, a plan that was working, and now you've ruined everything and it's all-"

"What was this oh so great plan of yours?" he asked, finally dropping his hand so he could fold his arms under his chest.

I froze mid-step, shooting him a flat look. "To _not_ talk to him!"

He snerked. "And then?"

"And then to… to... continue not talking to him! Forever!" I stamped my foot down. "And we'd live happily ever after. Not talking. _Ever_. The end!"

So what if I was being a bit petulant? So sue me.

He'd frigging _talked_ to him!

Riku could kiss my employee discount goodbye, that's for sure!

His eyes crinkled as he shook his head, "Or you could try Plan B and do this crazy little thing called using your words to put this whole mess behind you two."

I stared hard down at the cone in my hand, pursing my lips to one side. "But we never gave Plan A a real shot. I think it has potential, so maybe I should just keep working with that one."

Riku puffed out a breath, handing me back the scoop. "Look, like I said, I've spoken to him, and he totally understands. Accidents happen. But you both have to work here, so you really should clear the air. Don't you want to feel comfortable at your job and not have things be all awkward?"

"You do realize it's me you're talking to, right?" I scoffed as I took it from him and dug into the tub of Spark Lemon once more. "I'm the walking, talking human form of the blush emoji. Awkward is my middle name. At this point, I don't think I know how to be anything but."

"Well… you do you, I guess," he shrugged. "Just know that he's ready to talk whenever you are, okay?"

I paused, then slowly nodded as I topped off the cone with the third and final scoop. Then pulling a bar of the Royalberry from the compact fridges below, I handed both to Riku and rang him up at the register. As he quirked an eyebrow at me charging him full price, I shot him a blank look. "You know what you did."

He sighed through his nose, but a grin tugged at one corner of his lips as he paid. "Fine, whatever. See you later tonight," he waved as he walked off, licking away at his ice cream.

"Is this gonna be a problem?" I heard Frozone ask and I glanced over at him. He didn't look up as he closed the register with his hip, instead just gesturing with his chin towards the Pizza Planet as he jotted something down on his clipboard.

Squaring my shoulders, I shook my head. "No, no problem, I promise."

"You sure? Do you need me to bust any heads? Rough him up? Rearrange his face?"

I fought a tiny smile. "I'm sure. No face rearranging necessary, thanks."

Now he looked up at me, eyes deadpan. "Am I going to have to drag you over there by the ear so you two can make up and play nice?"

All color draining from my face, I was rapidly shaking my head again. "N-no, that's okay! You have nothing to worry about, I got it all under control!"

After all, I had my super great and totally amazing system that could not, would not fail me in any conceivable way!

His face broke out into a grin. "Good, that's what I like to hear! Now you," he pointed at me. "Tonight. Closing. First time all by yourself. You ready?"

"Absolutely!" I nodded. "I've closed with Kristoff the past couple nights now and I've got it all down. Seems straight forward enough, I should be fine."

Frozone cocked his head, " _Should_ be?"

"Definitely," I hastily corrected myself. "I will _definitely_ be fine. Better than fine. I will be perfection! You can count on me!"

"Fantastic," he tapped a fist to the side of my arm before turning his attention to the second register.

Surprisingly, I actually wasn't too concerned about it. Like I'd said, it was pretty simple stuff. Restock napkins and spoons, refill any empty ice cream tubs, wipe down surfaces, and so on. Sure, I was being given some responsibility, but I had zero problems with that. Responsibility was easy. Responsibility I could handle. It was people that I couldn't deal with and that was the beauty of closing: there wouldn't be a customer in sight. I'd be all alone, just the way I liked it.

Yup, I would be totally fine.

Not a single worry here. Nope.

* * *

Alright, one worry.

One big, whopping, _massive_ worry that I really should have seen coming from a mile away.

Guess who _also_ happened to be closing a certain pizzeria tonight?

That's right! A certain redhead whose name rhymes with 'flee.'

Which, coincidentally, is exactly what I wanted to do in that very moment.

But instead I took in a deep, calming breath and steeled myself as I continued to return our freshly rinsed and sanitized scoops to their homes on the Ice Palace counter so they'd be ready to go for the morning crew tomorrow. I concentrated very hard on not looking up, always trying to remain singularly focused on each task at hand. But as if my eyeballs had minds of their own, I couldn't deny them a brief, furtive glance through my lashes in his direction every now and again.

Like right now.

Stupid mutinous eyeballs.

He was currently just in his work polo and khakis, having discarded his apron and visor. He seemed just as determined as I was to pour all of his attention into getting his closing chores done, never once looking my way… at least, not that I was ever able to catch anyway. Since Riku'd talked to him, he probably was fully aware of how uncomfortable this whole situation was for me and was now just doing his best to give me my space.

Having just tied off a full garbage bag, he picked it up and I stiffened as he turned in my direction. But his gaze was everywhere and anywhere but on me, face impassive as he just kept pivoting into a one-eighty, slinging the trash over his shoulder and walking out the rear door of the Pizza Planet, probably heading for the dumpster. My whole body sagged as I released a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding.

Ugh, why did I have to be making this all so weird? We were just two separate employees working our two separate jobs at two separate corners of the food court! On the surface, you wouldn't even be able to tell there was anything wrong. So why did I feel the need to spazz in utter terror every two goddamn seconds?

Grumbling softly to myself, I quickly deposited the last of the utensils into their spots. Maybe if I hustled, I could finish everything and split before he returned. Then this could be Future Elsa's problem to deal with, because let me tell you, Present Elsa was feeling so done with it all. Having already topped off the ice cream bowls in the display, I moved on to snapping their lids down before double checking that the freezers below were fully stocked. Then I began shutting everything down, starting with the registers.

It was just as I had moved over to the soft serve/milkshake machine and was reaching for its power button that it happened. That Pizza Planet door opened once more. He came back. I looked. Our eyes met.

Instant.

Panic.

My chest tightened and my finger slipped, pressing down on a button.

It wasn't the power button.

A fact that I became immediately and woefully aware of as the machine let out a decidedly unhappy sound that could most accurately be described as a banshee screech, making me jump and stumble backwards. I watched wide eyed as it began to rattle and shake, its lights and digital display screens flickering in random patterns all over with no rhyme or reason.

I'd pushed _that_ button. The one Kristoff had warned me about. The Anger Button.

Why'd they even put the dumb Anger Button right smack dab next to the Power Button?!

What was even the _point_ of the Anger Button?!

Suddenly, the machine was spewing lime green ice cream at me. With a tiny yelp, I ducked, narrowly avoiding getting globbed in the face as it instead splattered against the wall behind me. Straightening up, I snapped at the machine, "Hey, stop that!"

Its only answer was to fling more ice cream at me, this chunk in a cotton candy pink. I managed to dodge that attack too if only just barely before making a dive for the power button, palm slamming down on it. And that… got me zilch. If anything, the giant tin can only seemed to rumble harder as it now shot out a neon orange gush that I had to sharply crane my neck to evade.

"I said stop that! Right now!" I scolded it. As if making demands of the thing would actually do any good. I mashed the power button several more times, to zero effect. Now in full on freak out mode, I desperately started pressing all the other buttons, flipping all the switches, and yanking all the levers as I continued to dodge the now rapid fire spray of chocolate-vanilla mixed bullets flying at me while its quaking grew more violent and its high-pitched shrieking just kept getting louder and louder.

I only seemed to be pissing it off more.

Like the legendary apple of biblical fame that never should have been eaten, I'd pressed the button that never should have been pressed. I'd enraged the ice cream gods and now they were punishing me. Smiting me for my foolishness, making me suffer their divine, sugary-sweet wrath.

"What do you want from me?!" I shouted at it in frustration, snatching my cap off my head and using it to smother the nozzle in a pathetic attempt to stem the never-ending flood of ice cream. "What will make you happy?! A ritualistic dance? An offering of my blood? The sacrifice of a small child? What?!"

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw it. A blur of movement. A streak of crimson. None other than a very familiar redhead vaulting himself over the Ice Palace countertop and landing right next to me.

I only had time to gawk at Lea before he was grabbing my shoulders and yanking me out of the way. The second my hat was off the spout, he was blasted with what was now a vibrant rainbow torrent of ice cream, drenching him from head to toe. Using one arm as a shield, he groped around the machine with his other hand until he found the power cord, seized it in his fist and ripped the plug out of the wall.

Almost instantly the machine stilled and the metallic screaming died down. The hush that followed was almost eerie by comparison. Wringing my cap between my hands, all I could do was gape as Lea turned to me, cold iridescent slush dripping from every inch of him as he wordlessly held the cord out to me. I blinked down at it.

...well fudge, why didn't I think of that?

I mean seriously, I'd tried to negotiate with the damn bucket of bolts and even suggested presenting an infant up in offering to appease the almighty dessert deities before the mere thought of pulling the plug had crossed my mind.

I really needed to get my priorities straight.

I slowly took the cord from his hand before hesitantly looking back up at him. Still he was silent. Maybe he was trying to let me take the lead on this, waiting for me to make the first move. My lips parted, but nothing came out.

...well? Go on already, say something! Anything! Stop just staring at him like a total goob!

"You…"

You helped me when you had absolutely no reason to.

You were amazing.

You're a total hero.

"...are covered in ice cream."

...ah, me. Master conversationalist. Queen of Wit.

Stating the super obvious was a dirty job, but someone had to do it.

His head rocked back slightly at that. "Huh? Oh," he looked down at himself with a soft chuckle. "Yeah, guess I am."

Alright, Elsa, let's try that again. Take two.

I cleared my throat and averted my gaze. "...th-thanks."

Alright, so I'm not going to be winning any sort of originality awards there, but hey, I liked to think it was at least a step up from my last comment.

He gave a dismissive wave, sending a few multi-colored droplets spattering with the gesture. "Don't mention it." He rubbed the nape of his neck. There was a long, painfully awkward pause where neither of us spoke or looked at each other. Then he jerked a thumb over his shoulder, "Well… guess I'll be going... then..."

He turned, planting his hands on the counter, preparing to catapult himself back over to the food court side. But then he stopped, just standing there for a couple seconds before puffing out a low breath and glancing back at me. "Look, about the, ah… the-"

"Kissident?" I blurted out.

...what the hell, mouth? I'd told you that codename in confidence! I thought we were friends!

"...sure? Okay, yeah, I guess that'd be a word for it," he rubbed a curled knuckle along his lips, hiding a tiny smile. Or maybe he was just wiping some of the frozen muck away. It was anyone's guess, really. "Whatever you want to call it, do you think maybe we could just... forget it ever happened? Hit the rewind button and do this whole first impression thing over again?"

Could… could we even do that?

Was that, like… _allowed?_

Realizing I was twisting my work cap to the point now where it was going to be filing charges against me for domestic abuse, I loosened my grip on it slightly as I gave a slow nod. "I would… really like that, actually."

Would you look at that? I'd not only managed to string more than two words together, but in a way that suggested some form of minor human intellect no less. Progress!

Wiping his hand off on one of the few dry spots still left on his pants, he stretched it out to me. "Hi there, name's Lea. Got it memorized?"

I stared at it for a second, worrying my bottom lip between my teeth. Then shifting the cord and hat to one hand, I reached out my other one to tentatively shake his. "Elsa. It's... a pleasure to meet you."

He grinned, "Likewise."

And just like that, a weight had been lifted. All that stress and anxiety shrank down to next to nothing. Not _completely_ gone, mind you. It's not like you could totally erase something like the Kissident, not with a simple handshake anyway. But still, it was suddenly a lot better than it had been over the past few days. At least I could once again breathe in the presence of this man.

He also seemed to sense the tension banishing. My hand tingled a bit as Lea released it and he beamed at me, bouncing on his toes slightly. But then he frowned as he seemed to abruptly remember that he was still caked in sugary goop as he glanced down at himself again. "Shit, it really got me good, huh?" Hooking a finger in his collar, he tugged it out wide so he could look down inside and grimaced. "Ick, even managed to get all in my shirt. I love ice cream more than the next guy, but even I have my limits."

And then, I kid you not, right then and there, still standing beside me behind the little Ice Palace counter, with all the scoops and cones around to bear witness, he reached over his shoulder, grabbed the back of his polo and pulled it up over his head and off.

A tiny noise escaped me that may or may not have resembled a "meep" as I dropped the cord and hid my face in my hat.

...had he really just done that? Surely not! I _had_ to have imagined it! Although if it _was_ just my imagination, _why_ my brain felt the need to supply the picture at this exact moment was a whole other can of worms that I wasn't particularly prepared to deal with at this time. But putting the Why aside, an overactive imagination would be the only thing that would make sense! I mean, it made more sense than some presumably half-way sane person just starting to strip in the middle of a public mall literally three seconds after being formally introduced to an all but total stranger!

Get a grip. It was all in my head. I had to be seeing things.

With a firm nod and a fortifying huff through my nose, I lowered my cap just a smidge to take a peek.

Then right back up the hat went.

Yeah, no, it was real. There was totally just some topless dude standing two feet away from me using his balled-up shirt to wipe ice cream off his abs.

...his well-sculpted, leanly muscled abs.

...not that I particularly paid attention to such things.

"Sorry," I heard him say, my spine snapping rigid at the sound of his voice. "But this stuff's gonna get super gross super fast unless I take care of it now. Hope ya don't mind."

Heart spasming and face sizzling, I shook my head quickly and opened my mouth to respond but-

"Hey! What are you doing back there?!"

I jerked my head up at the new gruff voice and looked out into the food court where two men now stood, one with his arms crossed, both scowling. The guy on the left was a big, stocky fellow with a square jaw and chiseled features, his ginger hair kept short and slicked back. His partner, who was almost just as big, had thick sideburns that hooked around his cheeks and wore his black hair in long dreadlocks tied back into a ponytail. They were dressed as mall security, the names on their uniforms reading Aeleus and Dilan.

As they both slowly stalked towards the counter, eyes narrowed on Lea, the one with dreads, Dilan, asked me sternly, "Is this degenerate bothering you, miss?"

My gaze just darted back and forth between the two of them as Lea threw his hands up, "Hey, woah now, you got it all wrong! I was just helping her out!"

Aeleus gave him a dull look, eyeing Lea's current state of partial undress then curling his lip slightly. "Sure you were, buddy."

"Oh come on! I don't recognize you guys so you must be new, but I work here! See?" Lea unfurled his polo as evidence, only to discover the Pizza Planet logo on it had been hidden by a thick coat of ice cream. With a groan, he tried to swipe it clean, but the stuff had already hardened into place. Facepalming with a growl, Lea then looked to me. "Go on, tell them!"

... _me?!_ He wanted _my_ help?

Hadn't he learned by now what a complete and total disaster I was in social situations?

No, don't think like that. The guy had just rushed to my aid a few minutes ago and now it was time to repay the favor. I had this.

...I hoped.

"I-it's alright," I stammered out to the security guards, "everything is fine! This is all just a… a big misunderstanding! It's actually just so silly, really. It all started earlier this week when he caught me off guard and all of sudden we were kissing and-"

"Excuse me?" Dilan asked coldly, turning his glare full blast on Lea. "Are you telling me this lowlife assaulted you?"

Paling, I rushed to reply, "No, no! It's okay! It's all good now because, see, just a bit ago, he charged at me, threw himself over the counter, slathered himself up in ice cream, took off his shirt and-"

Wait.

This was all coming out _so_ wrong.

"That's it, I've heard enough," Aeleus ground out through his teeth, pulling a pair of handcuffs off his belt. "You're coming with us."

With a snort and a smirk, Lea pulled down his left lower eyelid with his middle finger and stuck his tongue out at them. "Fine then, be that way! But you meatheads'll have to catch me first. Here!" He chucked his ruined shirt at Aeleus's face. Then shooting a wink my way, he turned and bolted out the Ice Palace's rear door.

"He's trying to escape out the back!" Dilan catapulted over the counter as Aeleus snatched the polo off his face with a snarl. As he barreled through the same door, Dilan called back over his shoulder, "I'll chase after him, you go around and try to cut him off!"

Aeleus gave a stiff nod before running off to the left and out of my sight.

So there I was. Soggy cap a crumpled wad in my tight, white-knuckled grip as I now just stood there, frozen and blinking in the middle of the Ice Palace, ice cream splashed across the walls and dripping from the machinery and ceiling. And all I could do was wonder…

...how on _earth_ I was going to explain all of this to my boss.

* * *

_**Author's note:** _ _L_ _ooks like in this AU, Elsa is just as bad at controlling her ice (cream) powers as ever... buh dum tss! And for those who don't remember from BBS because it's been too long or whatever, minor fun fact: Spark Lemon and Royalberry are ice cream flavors from that game! Worry not, I'll exhaust the whole BBS ice cream list before long in this story, mark my word!_

_Thank you so much for reading and to those of you who have shared with me your feelings on this story so far! If you have any friendly feedback, I would really appreciate hearing it!_


	6. Chapter 6

"Oh jeez, seriously?" Rayne snerked, a tiny plastic taste spoon hanging out of one corner of her mouth. "C'mon Elsa, they were just man boobs!"

Feeling a faint warmth creep up into my face, I huffed and turned my head to one side. "You don't know, you weren't there!"

"Psssh," her eyes rolled, "I doubt they're as mind blowing as you're making them out to be."

I twitched, gaze darting to the left. "I never exactly said the words _mind blowing_..."

Never said they weren't either.

...shush, brain.

She removed the tiny pink spoon from between her teeth to twirl it in the air as she singsonged, "The way you're overreacting, you may as well have."

Blushing intensifies.

"I'm not overreacting, I… I'm _RE_ acting! In… in just the exact right, perfect amount!" I stammered out, lightly stamping my foot down. "I mean, one second he's just standing there, and the next? He takes his shirt off! Right in front of me! Who does that?!"

"Sure a lotta guys would love to," she muttered, but I hardly heard her in my current state of mid-rant.

"I mean, the Pizza Planet back room was just a ten second walk away, he couldn't wait that long? He had to do it _right_ there, _right_ that second? That's it! That's the only reason that I'm being all… _this!_ It has nothing to do with the alleged mind blowing... _ness_ of his, uh…his..." I floundered, gesturing wildly to my bosom, "... _d_ _é_ _colletage_ or the accompanying, er…" my hand now did a frantic circle around my abdomen, "...accoutrements! I mean, fine, okay, I'm sure as far as man boobs and such go, his are very, ah… very _nice_. Adequate. Stately, even." Dear god, somebody stop me. "...pleasantly symmetrical? Quite… satisfactory and well structured… s-some might even say-"

"You done?" she cut in, an eyebrow quirking.

I hid my face in my hands, mumbling, "Yes please."

"Alright. Now girl, let me tell you, you haven't seen mind blowing pectorals until you've seen Riku's. I-" she stopped, snapping her fingers. Then she was digging her phone out of her back pocket, her thumb now rapidly swiping across the screen several times. "Hang on, I got pictures, I can show you. Ah-ha!" She grinned brightly, turning the phone screen towards me and thrusting it in my face.

"Gah!" I quickly looked away, raising a hand to block the image. "Why?! Just… why?!"

"What? I'm proud of my hubby's man boobs and like showing them off!"

Thankfully, Kristoff chose that moment to join us, usual bored look in place as he stretched his arm across the counter, offering a dollop of ice cream on another small spoon to Rayne. "Here's the taste of Daisy Sorbet you asked for, Ma'am," he droned out.

Eyes lighting up, she tossed the first spoon, snatching the new one up and sticking it in her mouth. "Mmmmm, fantastic! Now, garçon, I'd like to sample the Honeybunny please!"

He huffed out a soft growl. "Ma'am, that'll be the twentieth flavor you've tasted. Would you like to try, oh, say, I dunno… actually _buying_ something?"

"Excuse me," she sniffed, raising her nose up and placing a hand on her chest, fingers splayed, "but I am with child, sir. Picking the exact right flavor of ice cream that won't upset my sweet lil jellybean is a delicate, _delicate_ process."

Kristoff groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. Then he fixed me with a dull stare. "Elsa, make your friend go shoo."

I gave him a sympathetic smile, but just shook my head, "Sorry, not happening."

"Ha!" Rayne cried triumphantly. "Now be a good boy, run along and get me that Honeybunny! Chop chop! We don't need you hanging around listening in on us discussing our important business!"

His eyelids droop. "I believe I overheard the phrase 'man boobs' several times, how important can it really be?"

Rayne thrust out her lower lip, tapping an index finger to it. "Oh dear, there's been such a long interruption now to my taste testing… I hope I don't forget all the flavors I've already tried and have to start all _over_ from the beginning again…"

"...one sample of the Honeybunny coming right up, Ma'am," he said through grit teeth before turning and walking away.

I muffled a snort into my hand as I watched him go.

Sorry, Kristoff!

It was now the next day and I was back at work. I'd done my best the night before to clean up the devastating aftermath in the wake of Hurricane Ice Cream, but hadn't quite been able to get it all - in particular, the splatters across the ceiling were just simply out of my reach. So I'd shown up early this morning to meet the opening crew on their way in and explain what had happened, offering what further assistance I could. Luckily, I hadn't gotten in trouble. According to Kristoff, pushing the Anger Button was practically a right of passage for all new employees at this point. Pretty much everyone that'd ever worked here had done it at some time or another. I was just warned not to let it happen again.

Which, trust me, I wasn't. I was going to be _very_ mindful to not invade the Anger Button's personal space from now on.

I'd been exhausted when I'd got back home so late last night, so had gone straight to bed. Then this morning I'd rushed out practically at the crack of dawn, so I hadn't gotten a chance to talk to Rayne. But she was making up for lost time by coming down now in the middle of the day to visit me at work and had just finished dragging my latest little misadventure out of me. She claimed she had a sixth sense about these things, that she'd known something was up and that I'd needed someone to talk to.

And I'm sure all the free samples she was scoring right now had absolutely squat to do with it.

As soon as Kristoff was out of earshot once more, she hunched over the counter towards me and lowered her voice, "Alright but no, seriously, why was seeing Lea in all his shirtless glory such a big deal now, hm? You act like you've never seen a dude topless before."

I flinched. "Well…"

Her brow furrowed. "…you _have_ seen a dude topless, right? I mean, you were _engaged_ for crying out loud!"

"Oh no, I have," I nodded before pursing my lips to one side, averting my gaze. "But…"

"But?" she prompted. If she had a seat, she would quite literally be on the edge of it.

My hand reached up to toy with my braid. Nope, still a ponytail. Sighing, I said, "It was only ever in public settings, like big group outings on Father's yacht. Last night was just… different." I paused to bite down on my bottom lip before whispering, "I've never been _alone_ with a half naked guy before."

Something clicked behind Rayne's eyes as they widened. "Wait… Elsa… did you and your ex ever, you know… do the do?"

I hesitated, fidgeting with my fingers. "We-"

"Alright, here's the Honeybunny, as requested."

Whew! Saved by the Kristoff!

He offered the new spoonful of ice cream to her, but her hand snapped up to block it. Her gaze remained narrowed on me as she told him, "I'm gonna need a sample of every single flavor. Stat."

"Oh, come on!" Kristoff whined. "Even the ones you've already tried?!"

" _Especially_ the ones I've already tried."

Grumbling under his breath, he spat out, "Fine, but then that's it, I'm cutting you off. Crazy preggo lady or not, you're either going to have to buy something or beat it."

He turned to go, but was halted as Rayne said, "Kristoff." He looked back over her shoulder to see her eyes dead serious. "Leave the Honeybunny."

His lips flapped as he puffed out a heavy breath, then handed her the taste spoon and stomped off.

"That should keep him busy and buy us a few minutes of privacy," she beamed, shoving the ice cream into her mouth and once more leaving the spoon dangling from her lips. Then she planted her elbows on the counter, propped her chin in her palms and bat her lashes at me. "So… you were saying?"

I could feel that soft heat cozying up inside my cheeks again. "Could we maybe talk about this later? This isn't particularly a discussion I want to have at a mall nor in my place of work, and we're two for two right now."

"Well tough noogies, sweetpea, cuz it's happening. Now out with it."

Exhaling through my nose, I relented. "No, we never… I've never… done _that_. I... told him that I wanted to wait until marriage."

She released a low whistle - an impressive feat given the spoon still between her lips. "So you're still rocking your V-card? Who woulda thought you were so traditional? I mean, knowing you, I guess maybe I shoulda figured..."

"That's just it though, I'm not sure if I am," I hung my head with a frown. "It's just… me and _him_ , we made sense as a couple on the _surface_ , at least in my head we did. And sure, we would go out on dates and we would kiss, but… I was just never really interested in going beyond that… with _him_ …"

"But you're thinking with the right guy, you might?" She bent in further, waggling her eyebrows. "...be _interested_?"

My nose wrinkled and I lifted one shoulder. "I'm honestly not sure… maybe?"

Rayne leaned back once more, holding her hands up, "That's okay, that's a big topic to tackle and not one you necessarily have to sort out right this second, so let's take a step back from that. Start with something smaller. Something like learning to get out of your comfort zone every once in a while."

I tipped my head to one side, "My comfort zone?"

"Sweetie, I love you, you know I do, but you're one awkward penguin, plain and simple. Last night is a prime example, and just one of many at that. Now that you've left the life of the rich and pampered behind you and are out in this brave new world, you should start putting yourself out there more. You know, try new things, anything really would be good, no matter how small and insignificant it might seem, just to get you out of that protective bubble you tend to keep yourself in."

"But I like the bubble," I pouted, my voice small. "It's all round and comfy and safe."

She grinned gently, "I know it is, but I think this could really do you some good."

Grimacing, I managed to snag a thin tendril of my ponytail to twist around my finger. "Okay, so then… what kind of things were you thinking?"

"That brings us to Lesson Two of _The Real World for Dummies_ ," she held up a pair of fingers with a tiny smirk. "Making friends!"

I blinked and then gave a tiny scoff, "I've made friends."

"Name one since you've started this whole independence thing."

"Easy," I crossed my arms, "Riku."

She shook her head. "Riku and I are a package deal. He was basically a freebie and doesn't count."

Frowning in thought, I tried, "Frozone and Kristoff?"

Rayne gave a derisive snort. " _Work_ friends? You're gonna have to do better than that."

My eyebrows knit together before I brightened. "Sora! He's my friend, he said so himself!"

"Please, that boy would make friends with a toaster given half the chance," she deadpanned. "In fact, he did once. It involved a sharpie smiley face. Nuff said. No, name one new friendship that you had to put some sort of effort into forming and didn't simply fall into your lap. Go on. I'm listening."

...darn it, she was right.

It seemed my hermit was showing.

Her grin turned smug. "That's what I thought. So here's what you're gonna do. You're gonna go out there and you're gonna make yourself a new lil friend. That's part one of getting you out of your comfort zone."

Oh no.

"There's a part two?"

"Yup!" She slammed her phone down on the counter before me and ordered, "Call them."

I gave a nervous chuckle and tossed my hands up in a loose shrug, asking innocently, "Call who?"

"Don't get cute with me, missy! You think I forgot our lil chat a few days ago, but think again! Enough is enough, you've had plenty of time, now stop making excuses and just do it already. I know it's scary, but this is just something you gotta do! You-"

"I thought I might find you here."

Back stiffening at the third voice chiming into the conversation, Rayne slowly turned around to see Riku standing there, arms folded under his chest, one foot tapping as he went on, "Isn't _somebody_ supposed to be staying home and getting lots of bed rest?"

"Tch," her lip curled slightly, "c'mon, I'm barely showing, just let me live my life!"

Biting back a grin, he took a step towards, "Come on, you, let's get you back-"

"Jailbreak!" She booked it, darting off into the plastic jungle that was the food court.

His shoulders slumped and he scratched the back of his head as he called after her, "Seriously? You're gonna make me chase your sorry butt?"

"Yup!" she cackled, strategically positioning herself so that several tables were between her and her husband.

"Fine," he smirked slyly, "but you asked for it. Here I come!" He bolted after her.

"Great," I heard a grumble beside me, turning to see Kristoff standing there with a sour look and roughly forty of those teeny, ice cream laden spoons wedged between all his fingers on both hands. " _Now_ what am I supposed to do with these?"

"Eat them?" I grinned as I plucked one free and closed my mouth around it. Mmmmmm, chocolate! "Otherwise it would be wasteful, which is bad for the environment."

He gave me a flat look. "Okay, I know you're being facetious and I don't care." One corner of his lips turning up, he lifted one spoon-adorned fist into the air. "I must do my part… for the environment!" Then he crammed five of them into his mouth.

"The planet applauds you for your service and your sacrifice, sir," I snorted as he ambled off once more.

It was only then that I looked down and realized Rayne's phone still rested atop the counter before me. Taunting me. Maybe she'd simply forgot it, but honestly? Pretty sure that girl knew _exactly_ what she was doing. With a sigh, I picked it up, my reflection staring back at me in the blackened screen.

...okay, maybe I had been putting it off long enough, to the point of ridiculousness even. Delaying the inevitable was probably only making it worse at this point. I should give them _something_ at least. Some sort of proof of life so that they didn't think, I don't know… like I'd run off to join the circus only to get murdered by Bozo the Clown or something.

Still I hesitated, my fingers frozen around the phone.

"Ma'am, is this man bothering you?"

Welcoming the distraction (perhaps a bit too eagerly), I looked up to spot two familiar figures in matching uniforms. The security guards from last night were standing out in the food court, addressing Rayne now as she used a chair as makeshift cover to hide from Riku.

"Every second I've been married to his ass," she replied dryly.

"Gotcha!" Riku pounced, eliciting a squeal of delight from her as he scooped her up. I snerked as the mall cops just shook their heads and meandered off.

And _these_ two dorks were going to be _parents._

My eyes drifted past them to the Lucky Cat Café and I blinked. The stocky brunet was back and manning the register this time, but more importantly, so was that blonde guy. The one I'd seen working at the Pizza Planet just yesterday. How odd. So then, I guess he was currently working both jobs? Barista by day, pizza boy by night? Did he need the munny that bad? Yeesh, how expensive must his rent be?

Having just handed a customer their drink order with a smile and a wave, he then said something to his coworker before I watched him disappear into the back door. Just as it had clicked shut behind him-

"Ta da!" he sprung up on the other side of the counter directly in front of me, arms raised high over his head, startling a yelp from me and nearly making me drop the phone.

Heart hammering in my chest, my wide eyes darted from where he stood now not three feet away from me, to the door I'd just seen him walk through all the way on the other side of the food court. Then to him. Then to that door. Then back and forth a few more times.

He'd somehow traversed that large gap in the space of mere nano-seconds.

_And_ had managed to swap his coffee shop uniform for Pizza Planet duds no less!

How did he do that?!

"Now I know what you're thinking," he beamed at me, striking up a finger. "How did he do that?"

...woah, he was a mind reader too?

"And there's only one plausible explanation!" he continued with a cocky wink. "Teleportation!"

"Or maybe you just have a twin, you knucklehead," another voice said as a hand cuffed the blonde on the back of his head.

… oh. A twin. Right.

That made _way_ more sense than the next stage of human evolution being upon us and super powered mutants now walking amongst the rest of us mere muggles.

What a silly notion. Who would have thought that? Certainly not me.

Nope.

"Man, why you gotta always ruin my fun?" the blonde grumbled as he rubbed the fresh sore spot and scowled at the owner of the palm that had just delivered swift justice to his noggin.

"What can I say, Rox? Your suffering gives me life," Lea shrugged before turning his gaze on me with a grin and waggling his fingers. "Hi again."

This was the first appearance he'd made all day. It was a bit of a comfort to see him in his work clothes - a likely sign that he hadn't gotten fired. I would have felt horrible if last night's antics had cost him his job. In any case, he'd probably arrived just a few minutes ago and would be starting his shift shortly.

Becoming aware of the fact that my fingers were still absently fiddling with the phone, I quickly pocketed it and cleared my throat. "H-hello… wha-"

"Hiya!" a black haired girl shoved Lea out of the way to lean over the counter and get in my face, blasting me with a huge smile and causing me to stagger back a step. She too was decked out in the Pizza Planet attire. I recognized her from my first day of work. "So happy we finally got to come over here! I've been _dying_ to meet you!"

My eyebrows rose. "You have…?"

"You kidding? It's not just any chick that can make Lea here drop pizza dough on his head! Besides, it's truly an honor to be in the presence of the record holder. I'm in awe."

Further up and up those brows went. "The record?"

"Yeah! I mean, that has to be _the_ fastest anyone's ever planted one on Lea's li-"

"Xion!" he hissed, clamping a hand over her mouth. "Zip it!"

The blonde - Rox, was it? - smirked evilly beside them, "Lea's just glad that Ice Palace finally hired a cute girl and- _ow!_ "

I couldn't see it, but was pretty sure Lea had just kicked him.

"That's enough out of you two twerps," Lea grumbled, stabbing a finger out in the direction of the food court. "Table. Now."

"Fiiiiiine," Rox huffed out while Xion just shot me another grin and a wave before the pair of them wandered off to find seats.

"Oi, those two, I swear," he groaned, rubbing the nape of his neck as he turned back towards me, chuckling softly. "Don't mind the kiddos. Their teasing's all aimed at me, not you. They mean well, they can just be a lot sometimes."

I cocked my head. "The… kiddos?"

"Heh, yup!" Then his spine snapped straight and he winced, rapidly shaking his head and waving his hands back and forth in front of him. "Not that they're _my-_ No, I'm not a- I'm nowhere _near_ old enough to be their- That is to say, uh… they're my _friends_. That's it, no… familial connection whatsoever."

"Ah… I see," I said, feeling a tiny tug at one corner of my lips.

It was nice for once that _I_ wasn't the one that was spazzing out.

Also nice that the two of us could finally manage to hold a conversation.

Sorta.

...it was still a work in progress.

I looked down, gathering my thoughts to find something to say. I immediately regretted it as my eyes inadvertently landed on his chest, prompting my mind to gleefully run a slideshow of his topless exploits from the night before. Face heating, I snapped my gaze back up to meet his, blurting out, "So they didn't manage to ab y-" I paled. "Nab, I meant nab! They didn't manage to _nab_ you last night?"

Scratch that. I'd really love to go back to the whole not talking thing.

"Those couple o' brick-for-brains? Please," he brushed off, "they couldn't catch a sedated sloth dragging a one ton slab of concrete behind it. I coulda outrun them blindfolded and with one leg tied behind my back." Now there was an image. "Gave them the slip no problem, then had my boss sort it all out with them this morning. We're in the clear!"

"That's good to hear," I gave a small sigh of relief.

Then I just stared at him.

He stared back.

Yup.

Whoooooole lotta staring.

All of it awkward.

I glanced sideways. "So…"

"Oh! Right. Three bars of the Sea Salt Ice Cream please," he held up a matching number of fingers while his other hand scratched a spot behind his ear.

"A-absolutely! Coming right up!" Yes! Ice cream! Ice cream I could do! I darted over to the bottom freezers, opening them up and crouching down to look for the stack of light turquoise frozen bars. The cold air felt good on my face and I took this chance to recuperate and collect myself.

Steady, keep it together, girl. You got this. Just another minute more and you'll be through this social interaction and on the other side. And it should only get easier from here on out, right? ...right? And hey, look on the bright side. This wasn't going all that bad. So far you've gotten through this with little to no mishaps. Sure, there was that one teeny "ab" slip up, but he didn't even notice… I think. You can do this. You're doing fine. You haven't even thought of the Kissident once the entire time he's been here!

...aaaaaaaaand now you're thinking about it.

Great. Thanks a lot, brain.

Grabbing the three plastic-wrapped Sea Salts, I slammed the door shut and made my way back towards the register with determination and resolve.

Don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about it.

No more slip ups. Don't you do it. Don't you say it. Don't you dare.

I rang him up before looking back up at Lea as I offered him the bars. "Will that be all? Could I interest you in anything else-"

Don't say "kiss," don't say "kiss," don't say "kiss."

"-like a cone of the Milky Way? Rockin' Crunch? Vanilla Lips- _Glitz!"_ My eyes screwed shut. "Vanilla… Vanilla Glitz? Or any of our other fine flavors?"

Well… at least I hadn't said "kiss" anyway.

He smiled. Oh gosh, he had dimples. "Nope! Just those, thanks." He paid for his purchase and took the ice cream. With a nod, he turned to go but then hesitated, glancing back down at me. "Listen, that pair of clowns I call friends just went on lunch and I'm not on the clock for another thirty minutes. We'll be at that table over there," he crooked his head towards where Xion and Rox now sat chatting over their trays of food. "If you can take a break, you should come hang out with us."

I blinked once. Then twice. Then pointed a finger at myself. "...me?"

He was asking _me?_ To _join_ them?

Lea snorted. "Yeah, you. And if you're worried, don't be. The kiddos have had all their rabies shots. Just think about it, kay?" He lightly rapped a knuckle against the countertop before walking off with a wave. "Hope to be seeing ya!"

I watched him approach the other two, giving the back of Rox's seat a swift kick before easily dodging the swipe Rox threw back at him. Then he mussed up Xion's hair as he tossed the ice cream bars into the center of the table and spun an empty chair around so he could sit in it backwards. I watched his mouth move as he told them something before they all burst into laughter.

They seemed nice. And they'd invited me to sit with them.

...wow, that'd sounded _so_ high school.

Which, by the way, was something I'd never been good at, surprise surprise. And I wasn't talking about the academic part of it, no, that'd been fine. But when it came to all those cliques and that whole popularity contest and just in general trying to fit it? Yeah, no. That hadn't been for me. At lunch times, I'd only ever sat with my ex and his friends, and even then only because it was what was expected of me. His buddies had only ever ignored me anyway. If it'd been up to me, I never would have sat with anyone at all. Risk someone actually trying to start a conversation with me? Nu uh. Too scary. Left to my own devices, I probably would have just secured a table all to myself and built a fort out of trays to hide in and shut out the rest of the world.

Needless to say, the thought of joining Lea and his friends? Frigging terrified me.

Which is why it wasn't going to happen.

Thanks, but no thanks!

I'll just keep chilling over here inside Ice Palace, aka my beloved Fortress of Solitude. Or rather… Fortress of _Almost_ Solitude, since Kristoff was still around. But you'd hardly even know he was there. He was just off in a corner, still contentedly making his way through those taste spoons.

But as I looked back to that happy trio out there, I frowned. Something was nagging me. Needling at the back of my mind.

Took me a second to realize that it was Rayne's words from earlier.

That I needed to get out of my comfort zone. That I had to put myself out there and try new things. That I should put effort into making some friends.

The effort in this case being something so simple as sitting at a table.

One tiny act that seemed so insignificant and yet so intimidating at the same time.

I watched them for a few minutes more. Then I looked to the clock hanging on the wall. I _was_ due for my own lunch break.

...oh god, was I really going to do this?

Another heartbeat of indecision. Then I lifted my chin, squared my shoulders, marched into the back room to grab my paper bag lunch before exiting into the food court, heading straight for their table.

Apparently yes. I was really doing this.

Operation Make Friends was a go.

Courage don't fail me now.

...pretty please?

* * *

_**Author's note:** Thank you so much for reading and to those of you who have shared with me your feelings on this story so far! If you have any friendly feedback, I would really appreciate hearing it!_


	7. Chapter 7

"Hey! You made it!" Lea perked up as I neared the table. He nudged out the chair beside him with his foot. "Have a seat."

"Ah…" My hands wrung the top of the little brown sack to smithereens for a second before I stiffly sat down, bag perched in my lap. "Thanks." Then I glanced across the table and froze.

Xion and Rox were staring at me like I'd grown a second head. Then, somehow in perfect sync, their wide, unblinking eyes drifted to Lea. Then over to me again. Finally, they looked at each other, smirks stretching across their faces as Rox said, "He asked a _girl_ to hang out with us?"

"He _never_ asks a girl to hang out with us!" Xion nodded back at him.

Rox's grin turned a darker shade of wicked. "What could it mean?"

"What indeed?" Xion giggled, an impish gleam in her eye. "Maybe the boycott has been lifted at last and-" She was silenced by a fry smacking her in the face.

Plucking a second one from Rox's tray, Lea was preparing to fling it as well as he narrowed his eyes at the both of them. "Any other comments from the peanut gallery? Careful now, the next words outta your mouths could be your last."

"We're done!" they chimed in unison.

...boycott? Huh.

Had they been… protesting something?

Shrugging it off, I placed my paper bag on the table, earning me a "Woah!" from Rox. "Bagged lunch? How retro. I thought they'd gone the way of the dinosaurs."

Just like my own personal Ol' Faithful, I felt a familiar blush creeping up my neck. "Heh… I guess I'm just old school that way."

Two things.

One. I'd never, not ever, not even once in my life used the term "old school" before.

Two. I quickly turned the bag to hide the fact that it had my name scrawled on one side in flowery cursive punctuated with a little heart, hoping they hadn't seen it already.

Courtesy of Rayne. Not just the cutesy writing, but the whole homemade lunch. Practice for when she was going to make bagged lunches for her kid one day, or so she'd said anyway.

Ugh, I really was just her parenting guinea pig in all aspects, wasn't I?

"Aren't you gonna eat that?" Lea asked as I attempted (and failed) to _discreetly_ scoop the unopened bag back into my lap.

"Turns out I'm not that hungry after all," I mumbled. Which was partially true. I don't think my stomach had any room left in it for food, not with all the butterflies currently crammed in there at the moment. Besides, I was suddenly having second thoughts and was now deciding I didn't particularly want them to see what Rayne had prepared for me. Not the sandwich with the crust cut off, not the little carrot sticks, not the circus animal cookies, and definitely not the Capri Sun - now _that_ was old school.

As I looked up at the three of them once more, they were all just watching me with expectant smiles.

Oh dear lord, did they expect _me_ to talk now?

...how do I words again? I can't remember.

What do?

Swallowing hard and ignoring the slight tightening in my chest, I tried, "So… you're Xion and… Rox, right?"

She closed her eyes with a chipper nod while the blonde said, "Roxas, actually." His eyes darted to Lea with a smirk, "But Rox to those without the mental capacity to handle names with two or more syllables." A snort escaped him as he deflected the fry launched at him.

"Hey now, be nice, he handles _my_ name just fine," Xion flicked him in the ear.

"Please, yours is a one-and-half syllable at best," he stuck his tongue out at her.

She bit back a grin, "How's _that_ even possible?"

"Dunno. Maybe ask your parents, they're the ones who named you."

Their laughing was helping put me at ease somewhat as I felt the tension draining from my muscles, one side of my mouth twitching upward. "I don't believe I've introduced myself yet. I'm-"

"Elsa," Xion smiled sweetly at me, leaning forward to plant her chin in her palms. "We know. It says so on your adorable lunch bag!"

...kill me. Kill me now.

Clearing my throat and desperate to change the subject, I asked, "So how do you all know each other?"

"Met in a human studies course in college," Lea said. "Got thrown into a group project together and have been the Three Amigos ever since. Then when they were strapped for cash, I scored them their gigs at the Pizza Planet."

"Oh, so you're all college students?"

"Yup!" Roxas chirped before his lips twisted evilly as he glanced to Lea once more. "For some of us, it's only our first time even."

His fingers sheepishly ruffled at his crimson hair. "Hehe… third times a charm?"

Xion snerked into her drink. "Whatever you need to tell yourself, you old coot."

"Cram it. Twenty-five isn't old." Another fry lobbed.

Xion was ready for it this time as she managed to catch it in her mouth. "Hey, thanks! So nice of you to feed me, you're the best!"

"What about you?" Roxas asked me. "You also a slave to higher education?"

"Just graduated, actually," I nodded.

"Oh?" Xion tipped her head to one side. "So that'd make you, what… twenty-one? Or…?"

Was that an odd question to be asking me? It _felt_ like it. Then again, I was totally clueless when it came to this whole getting to know people thing, so what did I know? "Um, twenty-two?"

Xion's eyes lit up. "Twenty-two? Fascinating!" If you say so. Man, this bunch were easily diverted. That, or I was much more socially eloquent than I'd ever realized. Her eyes danced as they flicked to her redheaded buddy. "You hear that, Lea? She's twenty-two! Don't you think that's _fascinating?_ "

Seeing as the fries were all gone, he instead chucked a plastic spork at her.

I was missing something here. Probably just an inside joke. I shrugged it off.

"So then what brings you to work here?" Roxas grinned at me, chewing on his straw as it poked out one corner of his mouth. "I mean, this ain't exactly anyone's dream career. Not unless that degree you just got was in being a cog in the scoops n' cream corporate machine."

Now _that_ was a bit of a tricky subject. I may not have exactly had the gift for gab, but I was pretty sure I shouldn't go unloading all my baggage within the first ten minutes of meeting new people. With a tiny, self-conscious chuckle, I said, "No, my degree was in Art History, but uh… turns out it wasn't exactly for me. This job is, er… temporary while I try to sort my life out, I suppose."

Roxas frowned. "So that's four years just down the drain? That sucks!"

"But look on the bright side," Lea smiled as he braced one elbow on the back of his chair, propping his cheek in his hand. "Now you get to be a part of the Dusk Town Center family. You'll find it's a real hoot!"

A smothered snort from Xion. "No one says 'hoot' anymore, gramps."

He rolled his eyes. "I know. It was a joke."

"Uh huh. Sure it was." She then checked the clock on her phone. "Oh! If you guys still wanna head up there, we should go now."

Roxas hopped up out of his chair. "Course we do! Can't just let these bad boys melt," he reached for one of the ice cream bars, the only as yet unconsumed food left on the table. As Xion grabbed one herself and rose to join him, he looked back to his still seated friend. "Coming, Lea?"

He gave a flick of the hand towards them, "Go on ahead, I'll catch up."

Eyes darting back and forth between the two of us once more, Roxas's smirk made a roaring comeback. "Yeah, I bet you will!"

Xion elbowed him in the gut, forcing a grunt out of him. "See ya up there in a minute, Lea. It was nice meeting you!" she waved at me before hooking a hand in Roxas's elbow and towing him away with a yank.

"Where you guys off to?" I arched an eyebrow at him. It couldn't be far. They only had fifteen minutes tops before they had to get back to their jobs.

Lea's shoulders bobbed, "Aw, it's nothing. Just a small tradition of ours."

"What kind of tradition?"

He opened his mouth, but then stopped, clicking it shut again. Then, "How 'bout this. Why don't you come see for yourself? Whaddya say?" His shoulder nudged mine and he leaned in close, eyes hooded and half-grin in place. "Up for a lil adventure?"

My heart spasmed.

No.

Nope. Nu uh. This was enough mingling for one day, thanks. Check please. No way. Not happening. Not in a-

"Yes."

Oh. My mistake, apparently I was.

My mouth and I really needed to learn to get on the same page here.

"Alright, that's what I like to hear!" he beamed as he stood up. "Let's go!"

We wasted little time, only stopping long enough for me to return my lunch to the Ice Palace back room. Then Lea led the way out of the food court and into the mall proper. As I hurried to keep up with his long-legged strides, I had to wonder what on earth had possessed me to say yes. I mean, Operation Make Friends was already a success, wasn't it? I'd gone out there, I'd sat at the table, I'd made with the chit _and_ the chat. It was done. Mission accomplished. Score one for Team Introvert. Come on, I'd made the friends, hadn't I?

...I guess the fact that I wasn't exactly so sure about that was maybe why I'd agreed to this… whatever this was. These people were very different from those my parents had surrounded me with in the old life that I'd run away from. These were people I didn't totally understand yet and so had no idea if our interaction just now had actually gone well or not. It'd _seemed_ to go well, but knowing me when it came to all things social, I wouldn't have been surprised if I was _way_ off.

And so it was, I guess, that I now found myself off on an adventure.

I'd actually never seen much of the mall beyond the food court. Browsing the shops had held little interest to me, seeing as how if I ended up wanting to purchase something, I'd need this little thing we call munny. And as I had yet to even make my first paycheck, my non-existent bank account was sitting at a grand total of a big fat zero. Still, I couldn't help my eyes wandering as we passed the stores now.

There was a fish store by the name of Mermaid's Grotto where a bubbly girl with long crimson hair was working. A small movie theater simply dubbed Cinema XIII, where a bored looking teen with the slate bangs covering one eye was refilling the popcorn machine while an older tan man with long, sweeping silver hair who looked to be some sort of manager assisted a customer with their ticket purchase. Next to it was Bippity Boppity Boo, a formal gown and tuxedo shop. A small kiosk was in the middle of the walkway called the Flower Basket, which was filled with a beautiful array of bouquets being sold by a young woman with her brown hair braided and tied off with a pink bow. Across the way, a skater shop entitled Wild Boar that had some tough guy wearing a skull cap behind the register. And then of course there was a Mickeys, that big chain department store that no mall seemed to be complete without.

We weren't walking for long at all before Lea was turning down a less crowded wing of the mall. It was roped off with big colorful signs like "Under Construction," "Dusk Town Center Renovation Project", and "Coming soon!" He simply lifted one of the ropes up, bending into a mock bow with a flourish of his hand. "Ladies first."

However I stopped with a frown. "...where are we going anyway?"

"And spoil the surprise?" he tsked and shook his head. Still, I hesitated and he hummed a soft laugh. "The kiddos and I do this all the time, you got nothing to worry about."

I supposed we _were_ employees of the mall. So we were _technically_ allowed back there... I think? That thought was enough to get me moving albeit somewhat reluctantly again, slipping by under his arm holding the rope aloft and through to the other side. He followed, letting the cord fall and swing behind him as he took the lead once more.

This part of the mall was abandoned and dim, with only few overhead skylights casting pale light over the area. All the spots where the shops and boutiques would normally go were currently gutted and a total mess, with boxes everywhere, wooden planks stacked high, and dusty tarps strewn about here and there. Old floor tiles were ripped up in some places, patches of newer, fancier tiling in others and there was definitely that familiar "under construction" smell hanging in the air.

Another minute of walking brought us to a plain white door in a plain white wall. Lea jiggled the knob with a tiny scowl. "Those lil punks shoulda left this open for me. Hang on." His hand went digging into one pocket of his work khakis before a grin flashed across his face as he triumphantly fished out something small, shiny and wirey. _Two_ somethings, in fact.

I squinted at the objects. "You always just so happen to be carrying paper clips on you?"

"Don't you?" his eyes crinkled as he started pulling and bending one into a different shape.

"Um… no."

"But they're so useful!" His fingers had moved on to twisting away at the second clip.

A small snerk through my nose. "Yeah, I'm sure in a real document bundling emergency, you're a lifesaver."

"You'll see." He held them up once again, work apparently completed. One had been molded into the shape of an L, the other now bearing a jagged, zig-zag tip. "Just a sec!" he flashed those dimples before turning around and squatting in front of the door, sticking the makeshift lockpicks into the keyhole.

Okay, _now_ I was getting the _definite_ feeling this lil excursion wasn't quite on the up and up.

Just a hunch.

Folding my arms together, I gave an anxious glance back towards the way we'd come from. You could still see from here that flimsy rope barrier we'd bypassed and the sea of shoppers milling about just beyond it. None of them seemed to be paying us any mind however.

"...and presto!" _Click_. The door cracked ajar in front of Lea as he straightened back up to his full height. Pushing it the rest of the way open revealed nothing of what lay beyond, just utter black. "The quest continues!" he declared, pointing ahead as he strode bravely forward and disappeared into the murk.

I gulped, wringing my hands together.

Was I really going to go in there? Follow some guy I barely knew into a creepy corridor of darkness? There could be _anything_ in there! Like cockroaches or buzzing wasps or poisonous tarantulas or rabid rats or… or angry bears or axe murderers or ghosts or… buzzing ghosts of poisonous, axe-murdering rat-bears or-

"Oooo, that last one would be hella cool!" Lea's voice came from beyond the door.

...fudge, I'd been saying all that out loud, hadn't I?

His head poked back out of the doorway. "So you coming or what?"

I'm not sure exactly what it was. Maybe it was that little smirk of his, taunting me. Maybe it was the hint of a challenge in his voice. Maybe it was the words, 'Get out of your comfort zone' still echoing throughout my mind. Whatever it was, something compelled my feet to at last that step forward into the unknown.

So there I went, plunging into the shadows as the door closed behind me.

...huh. This was actually sort of anti-climatic.

Turns out it wasn't completely pitch black in here. There seemed to be very faint sunlight coming from somewhere up above. As my eyes gradually adjusted, I saw that there were no spectres, no ruffians or thugs, not even so much as a harmless little mouse. There _were_ spiderwebs in abundance, but I didn't get the feeling they were of the venomous tarantula variety. No, nothing here except for Lea and a rickety old wooden staircase that spiraled upwards for a few stories towards wherever that lightsource was coming from.

"You good?" he asked, to which I gave a single nod. "Sweet! Now tread carefully, the wood's old and'll break pretty easily in some places. I'll go first, just watch my feet and step where I step, 'kay?"

I nodded again as he walked past me and began to climb the stairs. Eyes trained on his bright red Converse that pierced through the gloom like a beacon, I followed not too far behind him, doing my best to ignore the nervous electricity still coursing through my veins. "So... good to know we have total and one hundred percent permission to be back here."

"Of course! Why else would I have my own personal set of custom-made keys?" he chuckled, waving the deformed paper clips about before stuffing them into his pocket. "Seriously tho, it normally wouldn't be a problem, but the place is just in major need of repairs and they want us to keep out for safety reasons."

"Oh is that all? Well that's a load off my mind," I deadpanned.

Lea snorted, "You're fine, trust me!" He then suddenly spun around on his heel to lean over me, bringing us practically nose to nose, one corner of his lips twitching up as he whispered, "You _do_ trust me, right?"

I swallowed a squeak and froze, feeling a tiny flutter in my chest.

Brain… scrambled… how… sentence?

"U-uh… buh…"

Nope, that's not it.

His expression softened as he pulled back with a splutter before cracking up completely. "Sorry, relax, I was just messing with you! You're too easy!"

Wha?

I… did _not_ get this person at all.

Still facing me, he'd resumed his trek up the stairs, only backwards now. As my heartbeat did its best to return to an acceptable speed limit and my face cooled, I tentatively followed, gluing my eyes to his feet once more. I was mildly fascinated by the way they still seemed to know exactly where they could safely step, even in reverse. Deciding to try and return to the previous, _safer_ -feeling topic, I said, "Wherever we're going, it must be really worth it. Otherwise why risk life and limb on these ancient stairs instead of just waiting for it all to get fixed up? Seems to be part of the big renovation project, right?"

He scoffed. "Yeah, good luck with that. This rebuilt, better, stronger, better-than-ever wing of the mall has been _coming soon_ ," his fingers air quoted, "for years now. The construction crew hasn't been seen 'round for ages tho."

I met his gaze, eyebrows shooting up. "Really?"

"Yup. Guessing the mall's pockets just weren't as deep as they thought and the dopes ran out of funding. That or-"

_Crunch!_

That, in case anyone was wondering, was the sound of a rotted step giving way beneath my shoe.

Because I, being the utter fool that I was, had forgotten to step only where he stepped.

I lost my balance. Gravity pulled me backwards. Time slowed. My life flashed before my eyes. I- oh snap, was that me when I was only five, watching as toddler Anna ripped the absolute stuffing out of my favorite snowman plushie? I'd forgotten all about that! That little brat still owed me for that one! Oh ho ho, I was _so_ haunting her from my soon-to-be afterlife!

A warm hand suddenly closed around mine. Time rushed to normalize as Lea yanked me forward, pulling me to him and onto the same wooden plank he currently occupied. Clattering could be heard below, most likely the tumbling, broken shards of the step that had just crumbled under me not seconds ago.

He glanced over the railing towards the two floors beneath that we'd already climbed. It may as well have been a gaping black void, what with nigh complete absence of light down there. Then he glanced down at me, "You okay there?"

Let's see here… Knees? Shaking. Breathing? Rapid. View? Full of stately, polo-clad man boobs. Ahem… but life? Intact. I think. Then again, maybe I was now a ghost and I just hadn't realized it yet. Maybe Lea could see dead people. But going off the assumption that my existence wasn't turning into a real-life reboot of an old M Night Shyamalan movie, I last gave a tiny nod. "Yeah, I think so."

"Good. Whew! Close one, huh?" he smiled, his hand finally releasing mine, leaving a not unpleasant prickle in its wake. As I closed my fingers against the sensation, he went on, "Maybe I should let you go first. Be easier to catch ya if any other boards decide to give way. Just… try to go for the sturdier-looking steps, okay? Starting with that one."

"Alright," I said slowly, gaze shifting to the one he'd pointed out before I moved up to it. Then I pursed my lips to one side, eyeing my next few options before settling on the one that seemed least likely to murder me. I carefully put my shoe on it, testing it a bit before lifting myself up on it. Rinse and repeat. At least it didn't appear that we had much further to go. It was getting brighter the higher we went and it looked like there was only one more flight left to reach the top. "So you and your friends do this often? How is it none of you are gooey splatters against the bottom floor yet?"

I heard a low laugh behind me. "You just kinda learn where not to step after a while, I s'pose. _Not_ that one." My foot froze, hovering over the plank in question. Then I skipped over it to the next one. "First trip up is always the hardest. Next time will be easier for you, so don't sweat it."

...next time?

Was that an invitation? Had I done it? Was I now one of the gang? Was I "In?" Were we, what's the word… homies?

At last we made it to the top where an open door leading outside lay at the end of the walkway. Faint voices could be heard beyond, chatting and giggling. Roxas and Xion? I stepped into the patch of daylight streaming in through the opening, stopping for a second to squint against the brightness that blinded me. As I passed over the threshold, Lea called, "Watch your feet, that first step is a doozy!"

Oh, I watched my feet alright.

I watched as they tried to walk me out onto nothing but thin air above a sheer drop straight down to the hard pavement several stories below.

Thankfully, my date with the Grim Reaper was rain checked as I felt something wrap tightly around my waist, jerking me back from the ledge.

"Jeeze, woman! You got a deathwish today or something?" Lea's voice came from right beside my ear. I could feel my back against his chest, could smell his warm, familiar scent of sweet and spicy cinnamon.

"I uh… not particularly," I breathed, eyes still fixated on that edge I'd nearly strolled right off of. It seemed we were at the top of some sort of tower now, one with no sort of wall or anything between a person and a plummet to certain doom. "I guess gravity just has it out for me today. Not quite sure what I ever did to it."

That or I'd cheated Death on the stairs just a few minutes ago and now it was just trying to reclaim the soul it was owed.

I was apparently big on the movie references today.

Looking down, I discovered Lea's arm still encircled around my waist, holding me fast against him. Cheeks warming, I awkwardly cleared my throat, causing him to hastily release me with a small, apologetic chuckle. Then I heard that pair of voices again coming from just around the corner. Thankful for the distraction, I moved towards them, glancing around curiously.

Just what exactly _were_ we on the top of?

The outer ledge before the dangerous fall was on my left, a high wall on my right bearing the door we'd come through. My fingers trailed along the shallow alcoves carved aesthetically into the wall, all shaped kind of like the door as they lined up in a row next to it. Up ahead, an angular column jutted up in the middle of the walkway, taller than me, with a burgundy spire perched atop it. I glanced straight up and blinked. Massive bronze bells hung high overhead.

That's when I heard it. Or maybe… more _felt_ it in the floor beneath my feet. This low, heavy _tick… tick… tick…_

"The clocktower," I murmured as realization dawned at last. "We're on Dusk Town Center's clocktower."

"Bingo!" he tapped his nose with a smirk. "Took ya long enough!" he then walked ahead of me, cupping his hands to his mouth and calling, "Look alive, boys and girls, we got company!"

As we rounded the corner, I at last spotted Xion and Roxas. They sat perched on the ledge, feet swaying carelessly off the side. They both whipped their heads around at Lea's words, Xion with her half eaten ice cream in hand, Roxas with his poking out of his mouth. Once more, they were both just staring at me, this time as if I'd sprouted a _third_ head, just to mix things up. Then they exchanged glances with each other.

Xion's lips twisted into a wicked grin. "He brought a _girl_ up here?"

Grabbing the stick of the ice cream bar and popping it out of his mouth, his expression mirrored hers. "He _never_ brings a girl up here! I-"

In one smooth motion, Lea swatted them both on the backs of the heads. "Will you two shaddup and knock it off with that shit already? She's not a girl!"

I cocked an eyebrow at that. "I'm not?"

Well that was news to me.

He stiffened, then quickly turned back towards me, waving his hands in front of him. "I mean, you _are_ a girl! Of course you're a girl, obviously, just look at you! That is to say, you're _a_ girl, just not a _girl_ girl. Er, rather..." he scratched a spot behind his ear, "...just, you know... not the type of girl they're talking about, ya know?"

"...sure?"

Actually, no, I did not know. Not at all. And at this point, I wasn't sure if even _he_ really knew. But the poor fellow had been struggling, so I'd figured I'd just let him have this.

"Guys, we don't have much time left before duty calls once more," Xion piped up.

"Yeah, so sit your butts down already," Roxas pat the ledge to his side opposite Xion.

I took a step towards them, but then Lea's arm shot out to block my way. "Ah ah ah," he waggled an index finger in my face with a half-grin, "you had a couple of close calls on your way up. So now you gotta prove to me you're not a danger to yourself and others by completing this lil analogy: Elsa is to a sixty foot swan dive to the cold, hard concrete below as an insect is to…?"

"Oo-oo!" Xion thrust up her hand. "The windshield on a fast moving car!"

"A flyswatter!" Roxas tossed in excitedly.

Xion tapped a finger to her chin as she looked up, "A bug zapper?"

"A blender!"

She made a face at Roxas. "Dude, ew. Why are you putting insects in blenders?"

He shrugged, giving his frozen treat a lick. "Why not?"

"I'll be _fine_ ," I frowned at Lea as I planted a fist on my hip.

He threw up his hands in defeat. "Okaaaay, if you say so! But if you decide to yeet yourself off the building later, don't expect me to come after you this time. I'm done saving your accident-prone ass," he tapped my nose with a wink. Then he turned and walked over to the ledge, plopping himself down next to Roxas.

Shaking my head, I followed, coming to a stop at the edge to Lea's right. My eyes widened slightly.

Woah… now that I was really looking, the view from up here was actually really nice.

It was kind of fascinating to see all the people below, wending about like ants in and out of the mall. Beyond them lay the shopping center's expansive parking lot which was packed to the brim at the moment with its sea of cars shimmering under the afternoon sun. And beyond that, Twilight Town sprawled in all its glory, a tapestry of reds, purples, and golden tans comprising the buildings of various shapes and sizes that stretched as far as the eye could see in all directions. A moving tendril of smoke could be spotted amongst the structures off in the distance, most likely the city's old-timey tram making its rounds.

I eased down to take a seat on the ledge as well, crossing my dangling legs at the ankles. A warm breeze picked up, tugging at my ponytail as my eyes continued to roam. "Wow, I can see my house from here. I know that's the cliché thing to say, but no seriously," I pointed, "my apartment building's _right_ there." I let my arm drop as I leaned back a bit, propping myself up on my hands. "...it really is quite beautiful up here."

"You should see it at sunset. That's when this place really sings," Lea nodded. His hand then went burrowing into his pocket, pulling out his own Sea Salt ice cream, still in its wrap. But wait, there was more it seemed as his hand dove back in only to produce a second one just like it.

Jeez, just how deep did those babies go?

Us ladies could only dream of such bottomless pockets on our own clothes.

He stretched an arm out to offer me one and I blinked down at it. Hang on... I looked past him to the bar in Roxas's grip. Then to the one Xion was working on. Back to the _two_ Lea was holding. My brow furrowed.

Option one. I was seeing double. It _had_ been a while since my last eye exam, perhaps I was due.

Option two. I didn't know how to count. Now I know I was an Art History major, but I'd been no slouch when it came to math. Going to rule that one out.

Option three. His Pizza Planet khakis were a magical gateway to a never ending supply of frozen, sugary Sea Salt flavored bars on a stick.

So which one was it? Lock in your bets, people, because it was time to find out. "...didn't you only buy three?" I asked.

"Had a sec to pick one more up while you were dropping your lunch off in back. Go on, take it. You know you want to," he sing-songed the last part, giving the cold treat a little wiggle.

Oh. Secret option number four it was then. Going back and buying another one. What a shocking twist, who would have guessed? Drat, and here I'd had my munny on the pants portal to the land of infinite ice cream.

I reached out and finally took it from him, giving him a tiny smile. "Thanks."

"That ice cream makes it official!" Roxas laughed. "You've been adopted!"

"Adopted?" my head rocked back slightly at that.

Ripping the plastic from his ice cream, Lea chuckled softly and scratched his cheek. "I guess I sorta have a habit of collecting strays."

My fingers froze mid-tear into opening my own Sea Salt, "...I'm a stray?"

"You do kinda have that whole lost puppy look about you," Roxas snerked before popping what remained of his own snack back into his mouth.

Xion leaned forward slightly to look past the boys and make eye contact with me as she beamed, "What we're trying to say is you're one of us now. Like it or not, you're stuck with us!"

"Oh! Um, okay then," I looked down, fingers now absently toying with the plastic wrap as a small grin tugged at the corners of my mouth. "I think I can live with that."

There was a warmth bubbling inside my chest. It tickled a little bit.

I think I'd done it. Operation Make Friends complete. Mission a success, and a rousing one at that if I did say so myself. The comfort zone had been exited. The protective bubble popped.

Well… sort of. It was a start, at least.

...and I guess there _was_ a little more still left to be done. A part two that'd almost managed to slip my mind.

As the others joked around and took light swats at each other, I slipped my free hand into one of the pockets of my skirt and retrieved Rayne's phone. I took a moment to grimace down at it cradled within my palm before puffing out a sigh and swiping my thumb over the screen to unlock it. Pulling up text messages, I started a new one, tapping in a phone number I knew by heart. When it came to the message itself however, I hesitated for a few seconds more. Then, finally, I tapped out:

_I'm fine. Please don't worry or come looking for me. I'll call soon. Love you._

My thumb hovered over the send button for several loud, thudding heartbeats. Then I squeezed my eyes shut and pressed down. Cracking one eyelid open, a breath I'd been holding escaped as I saw that little green pop-up declaring _Message Sent!_ It was only after I hastily blocked the number that I felt my tense muscles begin to relax.

I wasn't ready to hear back from them yet.

...but soon.

"Ya know you're s'posed to eat that, right?"

I jolted, fumbling the phone and nearly losing it over the precipice, but managing to get it firmly back in my grip once more.

Whew! Rayne would have _killed_ me if I'd sent the thing skydiving without a parachute!

I then glanced over to Lea, the source of my little jump scare just now. He pointed at the ice cream in my other hand and continued, "That there is a bonafide token of my friendship." He splayed one hand across his chest with a pout, "It'd break my heart if you just let it melt."

My eyelids drooped, but I had to bite back a smile. "Right. We wouldn't want that, now would we?" Pocketing the phone once more, I finished removing the wrap. Was sorta surprised it wasn't already nothing but a dripping lump of neon blue sludge just clinging to the stick for dear life at this point. Guess our Ice Palace freezers were just _that_ burly, making our merchandise stay chilly for eons.

Welp, here goes nothing.

Without further ado, I licked the ice cream.

Then immediately pulled it away, sucking in my lips and wrinkling my nose. "It's salty."

"But sweet!" The other three happily proclaimed in chorus before bursting out in laughter once again.

I raised an eyebrow. They'd almost seemed to have been waiting for that. Was it… part of this tradition of theirs?

...friends were weird.

* * *

_**Author's note:** _ _Insert obligatory clocktower scene, cuz really, what fic with the Sea Salt Trio in it is complete without it? Thank you so much for reading and to those of you who have shared with me your feelings on this story so far! If you have any friendly feedback, I would really appreciate hearing it!_


	8. Chapter 8

It was dawning on me that I hadn't fully thought this through.

This whole "having friends" thing.

There were so many factors I hadn't even considered. Like, once you've made a new friend…

...what the frick are you supposed to do with them?

One would think I'd have this figured out by now. After all, I was friends with Rayne, wasn't I? But Rayne was different. There hadn't really been much to think about there, we'd just sorta clicked. Besides, we'd met when we were children - a time when the hot topics to talk about had been our favorite toys to play with or which of the boys had cooties or our latest masterpieces made during Arts and Crafts time involving gluing popsicle sticks and sequins to pine cones. You know, kid stuff.

But now I was an adult. An adult who had just made new adult friends who probably expected adult conversations.

And unfortunately I just didn't think cooties and sequins were going to cut it anymore.

Which is why I could now be found on this fine Friday afternoon shift at the Ice Palace having borrowed Kristoff's phone, making use of the current lull in customer traffic to carry out some important research. And how, one might wonder, was this important research being gathered?

By googling the phrase "how to friendship."

Genius, I know.

Thousands of articles and tutorials had come back in the search results, not all of them useful, but I'd landed on a couple that could maybe help a little bit. I gnawed on my lower lip as my eyes quickly scanned over the words. Then with a nod, I used a pen to transcribe the cliff notes version over to my palm, adding on to the ever growing list of useful tidbits that could now be found there.

Call it my Chit-Chat Cheat Sheet. That's right, folks, you're witnessing a crucial life hack in the making. This handy-dandy little list was going to be my one-stop shop to social butterfly success. Look out, new pals of mine, you were about to be friended so hard. I was going to friend your butts off! This was-

"Hey, I also like to doodle on my hand whenever I'm bored outta m-"

With a half gasp, half yelp, I jolted up straight, wide eyes discovering Lea now standing on the other side of the counter from me. He brought up his hands, "Woah now, sorry! Didn't mean to scare you."

My own hand flew up to cover my pounding heart as I breathed out and shook my head. "No. No, it's fine, I should've been paying more-" My fingers flexed, closing around empty air. My brow furrowed. "Wait…" Where did my-? Did I drop it? "...I had a pen."

It suddenly blurred down from up above to crash land into the countertop, making us both flinch and jerk back slightly.

Oh. Heh. There it was.

"Sorry about that," I gave a weak laugh, retrieving the writing implement and giving it a little waggle as I held it up. "I… guess I still got a few kinks to work out before I can successfully launch the first unmanned pencraft into orbit."

...wow, did that stupid joke really just come out of me?

Must. Resist. Urge. To. Wince.

The corners of his eyes crinkled. "Might I suggest waiting for a day when the weather forecast reports zero chance of ceiling?" he pointed up.

I nodded, "Good note. Excellent observation. Prime example of one of my kinks." I blanched, then hastily stammered, "I mean the… one of _the_ kinks that, uh, needs to be, er… worked... out."

Ugh, what's wrong with me? Why am I like this?

_This_ is why I needed the list.

...crud! The list! My eyes darted to my palm where it was scrawled in plain view for all the world to bear witness. Then my gaze flicked to Lea, looking at me with an eyebrow cocked and one side of his lips turned up. Then I balled my fist and jammed it behind my back.

Had he seen?

He mustn't know about my secret hacks!

That's when I spotted it. Kristoff's phone. Still on the counter between us. Still open to the WikiHow I'd been taking notes from. My other hand shot out and swatted the device away, sending it slamming into the wall on my right before clattering to the ground.

Oopsie. Sorry Kristoff!

Luckily he was currently out and about taking his ten. He'd never have to know. This could just be our little secret between the phone and me.

"Shit, what'd that poor thing ever do to you?"

...rather, between the phone, me, and _Lea_.

What had it done to me, he asks? It'd tried to rat me out, that's what!

My eyes darted to one side. "...let's just say the crime fits the punishment."

Snitches get stitches.

He glanced to where the abused phone still lay abandoned on the tiled floor, then snorted and crossed his arms with a shake of his head, "If you say so."

Alright, so this exchange so far? Could be going better. Not exactly textbook. _Lot_ of room for improvement. But that was okay because (ba-dum ba-dum!) Chit-Chat Cheat Sheet to the rescue! It could salvage any social catastrophe! Let's just watch it work its magic, shall we?

I shifted to bring my hand out in front of me once more, casually resting my palm face down against the countertop. Then I lifted it just barely enough to furtively peek at the first couple lines I'd written there.

_Start with a warm, friendly greeting. Examples include…_

I locked eyes with him. "Whassup."

He blinked. "Um… hi?"

Nailed it.

Alright, now that a proper line of communication had officially been established in the most cordial manner, on to the next step: small talk. After sneaking another quick look at my notes, I pressed my hand back down again and recited the words I'd just glanced at, "So nice weather we're having, huh? At least it's not raining like last week."

This list was a god send. Pure gold.

He squinted upward, scratching the back of his head. "Hasn't it been sunny for months now?"

...fudge.

Abort, captain, abort! The first one was a dud! Quickly, lock and load the second one and fire!

I anxiously checked my palm again and latched onto the next line, reading out, "That's an awesome shirt you're wearing!"

He frowned down at it, eyebrows knitting together. "You mean my work polo? Not… really, but okay."

Aaaaaaaand another swing and a miss!

Oh wise and powerful Chit-Chat Cheatsheet, why hast thou forsaken me here, now, in my greatest hour of need? Me, your most devout and faithful of followers? Me, who loved and worshipped you so?

Feeling my panic spiking, I looked to my hand again to find one more line I had yet to try. One final chance for salvation. This was it. My ace in the hole. List, don't fail me now!

Desperate, I didn't even register the words as my eyes snatched them from my palm, handed them off to my brain that then shoved them down the pipeline to my mouth which proceeded to blurt out verbatim, "So what do you do in your flamingo?"

...the list had failed me.

"I'm sorry, what does who do in the what and where now?"

And we're talking like… _epic_ failure.

I was just now realizing this was the one I'd been in the middle of jotting down when Lea had startled me. So chances were good that that sloppy mess of a scribble at the end of the sentence? Wasn't _actually_ the word flamingo.

At least, I _hoped_ it wasn't.

Whatever. I give up.

Puffing out a sigh as I pinched the bridge of my nose, I muttered, "You know what, forget it. I'm just… having a bit of a malfunction. One of those days, I guess."

"Oh," he chuckled, "no worries! Those come up all the time working customer service, so I totally get it."

This guy was too nice. Here I was, spouting off nonsense like a gibbering baboon and he was just brushing it off like it was no big deal. Like it was an everyday occurrence for a person to ask him if he did lord only knows what to a neon pink bird. I should get on with assisting him with whatever he'd come over here for. It was the least I could do in exchange for him putting up with the trainwreck that was me. Taking a deep breath and putting on a smile, I asked, "So what can I help you with today?"

He returned the smile, "Take a wild guess."

I glanced around my work space. "Ice cream?"

"Got it in one," his thumb went up. "I'm a total addict by the way, so you'll be seeing a lot of me."

"I'm sure your dentist says the same thing," I deadpanned, pressing my finger to a button on the cash register. "Sea Salt, right?"

"You're on a roll today!"

My grin twitched wider. He was so much better at this small talk thing than me. "How would you like it?"

"I like my ice cream like I like my women: swirly and in a waffle cone," he winked, tossing out some finger guns.

...I take that back, this dork was just as clueless as I was. Had to be if he thought that was funny.

I merely arched an eyebrow at him as the silence stretched. Then he pouted, "Aw c'mon, kid, these are the jokes! Don't leave me hanging here."

I snorted, tapping a couple more keys on the register. "Sorry. It's just that after the other day, I would have thought your answer would've been more along the lines of 'frozen solid and on a stick.'"

"Oo, dirty," he chirped, his eyebrows bouncing.

Welp. That'd teach me for trying to play along.

"But no," he waved off, "that was more out of necessity. Only the ice cream bars can survive the long trip up the clocktower without melting first. Otherwise, give me creamy, fluffy, and with a twist any day!"

"Duly noted. Just a sec." I turned, plucking one of the cones off the top of the stack as I walked past, approaching the soft serve/milkshake machine.

Ah, my old nemesis. We meet again. One could almost hear the Old West face-off tune whistling in the background. But thankfully, there would be no drawing of pistols this day.

I liked to think there was a grudging, mutual respect between us now.

Being super mindful of the Anger Button, I switched it to the appropriate flavor and pulled down on the lever. As I moved the cone in small circles while it slowly filled with blue, sugary goop, I heard Lea ask, "Snow Bear?"

I looked back at him, a crease forming between my eyebrows as I tipped my head to one side.

...what'd he just call me?

He was hunched forward now, elbow on the countertop and chin propped in hand, fingers drumming against his cheek as he squinted at me with a frown. Then shook his head, "Nah, too healthy, even for a goody-goody like you. Tofu has no business being anywhere _near_ ice cream."

Then it clicked. Snow Bear was one of the flavors we offered.

"Big Bad Pete?" he pursed his lips to one side, then crinkled his nose. "Nope. Too nutty. Thinking you like a crunch, just not that kind."

I returned my attention to the machine, making sure the cone wasn't too top heavy. "Are you… trying to guess the type of ice cream I like?"

"Yup! Since Sea Salt clearly wasn't your thing."

"I wouldn't necessarily say that." I released the lever, completing the stacking spiral with a nice little curl at the top and turning to face him once more. "But it is… shall we say, an acquired taste?"

Lea smirked and scoffed, "Blasphemy! Don't worry though, I won't judge you too harshly for your dirty, heathen tastes."

"You're too kind," I rolled my eyes as I handed him his purchase.

Taking it in one hand, he used the other to give me the munny due. "Consider it my one good deed for the century. It's a doozy though. I'm expecting my sainthood any day now." He then lapped off a big blue chunk as he eyed me thoughtfully. "Donald Fizz maybe?" Then he pulled a face with another shake of his head, "Nu uh, too close to Sea Salt."

"If you really want to know that badly, it's-"

"Buh buh buh," he pressed a finger to my lips, cutting me off. "Yeesh, don't spoil my fun like that, let me guess! This is like my mutant power, I can always tell a person's fave ice cream." He narrowed his eyes on me as he took another bite, licking some of it off from the corner of his mouth. "You're a tough read though. Gonna need more time, gather more intel." A grin broke out again, "But I do oh so love a challenge." Then he snapped his fingers, "What about-"

"Elsa?!"

My blood ran cold at the voice that cried out from across the food court.

A very, _very_ familiar voice.

One I had not expected to hear again for a while yet and certainly not _here_ , at the Dusk Town Center mall, at my _sanctuary_ of all places.

Lea glanced over his shoulder, looking for who'd interrupted him before yelping and leaping out of the way so as not to become roadkill to an auburn and blue blur zooming straight for me. It crashed up against the other side of the counter, lashed its limbs out over the top and seized me in its vice-like grip, yanking me forward into a bone-crushing embrace and squeezing the absolute life out of me as it once more shouted, "Elsa! I found you! At last, I found you!"

Or rather… not _it_ , but _her_.

Anna Fryse.

My sister.

...who, as I was just now discovering, might also be part boa constrictor. Good lord, this girl did not know her own strength!

"Anna," I wheezed, feebly patting at her elbow. An extraordinary feat, given that her bear hug was practically super gluing my arms to my sides. "Can't. Breathe."

"You're okay! I was so worried! I thought you might be hurt or trapped or drugged or kidnapped or amnesiad or dead or, or, or- but you're not! You're really, really not! You're alive!"

"Won't be for much longer if you don't let go," I croaked out, starting to see spots. Finally she released me and I gasped for breath. Ah, oxygen. Beautiful, life giving oxygen. I coughed, "Did you seriously just use 'amnesia' as a verb?"

Completely ignoring my question, her hands still grasped tightly at my shoulders as sharp, blue eyes set in a freckled face looked me over. Her red hair was done in pigtail braids and she was in a dark cobalt sundress with a black bodice.

Then she opened her mouth.

"Woah, Elsa! You look different! It's a _good_ different! I love everything about it!" She grabbed me by the cheeks, "Your face, the outfit, that hat - oh _gosh_ , that hat! I never thought I'd see you in a friggin' baseball cap! It's too friggin' cute! And a ponytail! How many times have I said you'd look totes adorbs in a ponytail, and you know what? Told you so! And- oh. My. _Gawd!_ " She bellyflopped onto the countertop, pointing down, "I just saw the mini skirt! Friggin' _you!_ In a friggin' _mini skirt!_ Damn girl, you hawt!" She fell back onto her feet once more, looking up at our sign, "And this place! What is this place? This place is amazing! Do you work here? Please, please, _please_ tell me you work here! Oh my _gawd_ , you _do!_ You have a friggin' _job!_ What do you do? How much do you make? Do you pay taxes? Do you pay rent? Do you have a 401k? What is a 401k?" She pointed at an ice cream spade, "What's this thingie do?" Next at the soft serve/milkshake machine, "How does that work?" Up at a dangling Sven plushie. "What's up with all the friggin' deers?" Then at Lea standing off to one side, slowly eating his ice cream and watching on with one curious eyebrow quirked. "Who's the hottie with a body?" She started to wave, calling out, "Hello, Mr Hottie-With-A-Bo-"

" _Anna!_ " I hissed, cheeks roasting as I snatched her hand back down. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Lea returning her wave with a tiny one of his own, to which I shot him a dull stare. He just grinned and shrugged. Shaking my head, I asked him, "Could you, uh… would you mind giving us a minute alone? Please?"

"Sure, no problem. I should be getting back to work anyhow. Laters, El!"

...El? Who's El?

"Nice meeting ya, El's friend!" he gave a two finger salute to Anna with a wink before sauntering off.

Huh. Guess that'd make _me_ El. I'd earned a nickname. Had our friendship leveled up? Wow, I was so good at this friends thing! Without even understanding it, I had somehow already mastered it.

Bravo, me!

Anna watched him go, then turned back to me with a low whistle. "Okay, seriously, who was the sexpot and please, for the love that is all that is good and foxy, tell me you are tapping that."

"Oh my god, Anna!" I facepalmed. I wasn't going to dignify that with a response. "What are you even doing here?"

"I told you already, I was worried!"

My forehead wrinkled. "But you knew I wasn't abducted or anything, you were the one who helped me run away. Besides, didn't you receive my text telling you I was okay?"

"Yes, _weeks_ after you disappeared!" She smacked me in the arm with a glare. "You could have contacted me sooner, brat! And what the frick was up with your stupid text?!"

"Stupid...? What was wrong with it?"

"I'm fine, don't worry, don't come looking for me," she flatly recited the words from my message before looking away with a huff. "Please, have you never seen any kidnap movie in the history of like friggin' ever? That's like classic code for 'help me, help me, I've been taken hostage and am being forced to tell you these things under duress.'"

"Ugh, the way your mind works," I grumbled, massaging one temple. "How did you even find me anyway?"

Anna snorted. "What, you think just cuz you blocked my number that I wouldn't be able to track you down? Sis, please, we live in the golden age of technology. Trust me, I have my ways. There's a lot a girl can do with just a phone number and this little thing called the internet."

I opened my mouth to retort, but then froze with a gasp as another thought struck me and nearly stopped my heart. My eyes darted about, searching the food court while I fidgeted with my fingers. "Wait… oh god, does… do Mother and Father… do they know? Are they also here? Did you tell-"

She gently shushed me, reaching over the countertop to rub my arm. "Sis, Sis, it's okay, they're not here, don't stress! I _did_ tell them I got the text from you so they'd know you're okay, but I didn't tell them I'd figured out where you were. They don't know that I came here looking for you. You don't have to talk to them until you're ready."

"Oh thank god," I sighed, slumping against the counter. That… was a talk I was in _no_ way prepared for. Not just yet. I gnawed on my lower lip for a second, glancing back up at Anna. "What about-"

"He's fine too," she said softly.

I frowned. "...really?"

Her face pinched into a tiny grimace. "I mean, he's not _great_. He got dumped at the altar, what do you think? But he's a big boy, he'll survive."

Well that was a load off my mind.

Not.

"Ugh, I feel terrible," I buried my face in my hands. Then I peeked out between my fingers at her. "Could you… I don't know… maybe do damage control with him for me or something?"

"Was already on it," she beamed with a thumbs up. "But enough about all that, gah, so friggin' depressing! I wanna hear more about _you_ and your new life and this whole job thing and that redheaded Hunky McHunkface and all that's happened to you since you flew the coop! Tell me _everything!_ "

A tiny smile crept up onto my lips. I knew I'd been missing my little sister, but it was only in that moment... seeing her here in front of me, hearing her voice again... that I was realizing just how much. "I'd actually really like that. But uh…" I looked past her, noticing more shoppers wondering about amongst those tables out there now than there had been just moments ago, with even more trickling in by the second. "Looks like we're about to get our afternoon rush, so it's not really the best time."

Anna tapped her chin with a low hum before her face lit back up. "Are you free tonight?"

My head tilted to the left. "I'm working closing, but I should be out of here by nine I think."

"Perfect! Let's do dinner! Then we can properly celebrate your new found freedom as you tell me all about it! Whaddya say? Pleeeeease?" Puppy dog eyes initiated.

I laughed and nodded. "Yeah, okay. That sounds nice."

"Yay!" she bounced on her heels, rapidly clapping her hands together with a tiny squeal. "Ahhhh! Can't wait! Okay, you said nine, right? Right! I'll be waiting in my car right outside those doors over there, got it? Good! I'll leave you to it then!" Then she was snatching me into another hug over the countertop and planting a kiss on my cheek with a loud _mwah!_ "Love ya, Sis! See you then!"

And just like that, Typhoon Anna whooshed off once again, disappearing into the ever growing crowd.

Not a second later, I heard the door open behind me. "Hey, I'm back, sorry it ran a little long, I- hey, why's my phone on the floor?"

I winced.

Heh… woops.

One tiny detail may have slipped my mind in all the mayhem that had been the last ten minutes.

I turned to see Kristoff stooping down to pick it up before he graced me with a scowl. I chuckled sheepishly, "So… funny story…"

* * *

I got the feeling Kristoff hadn't found my story all that amusing.

Don't think he'd found it particularly believable either.

Not sure why. I mean, wasn't it totally plausible that a strong gust of wind had blasted through the entire mall, causing one of the bigger reindeer dolls to fly off its hook and rocket straight into my hands, knocking his phone free from my grasp and sending it slamming into a wall where I had then left it for fear that moving it could cause more damage and trauma to the poor little device that had already been through so much?

No? Not plausible? Not even remotely or in the slightest?

Drat.

I'd never really been good at the whole lying thing.

But it'd been the best I could come up with on the spot. I mean, I wasn't about to tell him the truth about how I was a total, pathetic dunce when it came to making friends which in turn caused me to do idiotic things like fling other's people's fragile property at hard surfaces.

In any case, Kristoff and I were currently not on speaking terms.

At least, I'm pretty sure we weren't. That was my best guess anyway, given he hadn't spoken two words to me since I'd spun my little tale.

Eh, he'd get over it.

A couple hours of the silent treatment later and he'd clocked out without so much as a goodbye. Then a few more hours brought me to the here and now of closing time. I was almost done wrapping everything up, just needed to finish wiping down all the surfaces. Having already ensured the inside of the little shop was pristine, I'd stepped out to be on the food court side of the counter, using a cloth to remove any fingerprints and other smudges that'd been left by customers on the display glass.

As I finished cleaning the last of it, I exhaled heavily and straightened up, planting my hands on my hips as I inspected my work. Nodding in approval at a job well done, I then looked to the clock on the wall to see that it was a quarter to nine. Perfect. Plenty of time to grab my things and lock up before heading out to meet Anna. Stretching my back to loosen some of the stiffness that had settled in there, I then took a quick glance over my shoulder.

It really should come as a shock to no one at this point that Lea could once again be spotted across the way from me. I was beginning to think the people in charge of scheduling our shifts met up for weekly tea and crumpets or something while they made sure the hours the two of us worked almost always lined up exactly. What nefarious scheme was being cooked up by the upper management of our two separate companies? What could they possibly hope to gain by it? Only time would tell.

In any case, he too looked to be almost done with all of his closing tasks. He was currently out in the food court area as well, using a broom to sweep up the area in front of Pizza Planet. Or so I'm sure the intent had been.

Except... he wasn't really so much _in front_ of the pizzeria as he was on top of one of the tables.

And it wasn't so much a _broom_ as it was an impromptu mic.

And he wasn't so much _sweeping_ as he was in his own little world, enthusiastically lip-syncing and dancing away to the song blasting out of his phone in the back pocket of his pants. _I Believe In A Thing Called Love_ by the Darkness, if the wild electric guitar, high falsetto vocals, and cheesy lyrics were anything to go off of.

Wow, he really was a complete dork.

A splutter of a laugh burst out of me before I was able to clamp both my hands over my mouth in a vain effort to stop it.

I'm not sure how he heard me over all that explosive glam rock, but it seemed he did somehow for his head suddenly jerked in my direction. Then he beamed and started hopping across all the tabletops towards me. _That_ couldn't be sanitary. His feet at last touched ground in front of the Ice Palace as he crouched low before springing back up into a half-turn, landing himself in a seat atop the counter right between the ice cream display case and a cash register.

Still directing that ear-to-ear smile my way, he pulled his phone out long enough to hit pause on his music. "So whadja think? Do I put on one hell of a show or what?"

Oh dear. Not only a dork but no shame to boot. A deadly combo, that.

I snorted, eyes on the glass once more as I went back to scrubbing it for the now nonexistent spots. "For sure. You should hurry up and get on becoming a bigtime rock star already."

Broom balanced on the floor between his knees, he folded his hands over the handle point and rested his chin on his knuckles. "Nah, all that fame and fortune I'm guaranteed to get cuz I'm so loveable, awesome, amazing and cool would go straight to my head."

I bit back a grin. "Because you're so modest now."

"Oh yeah, I'm humble as fuck!" he declared brightly. Then he shrugged and sighed, "Guess I'm just kinda perfection that way."

My eyelids drooped. "...clearly."

"So," he lifted his head off its perch, freeing up one hand to scratch behind his ear, "everything okay? Between you and your sister, I mean."

I looked at him, blinking a couple times. "How'd you know she's my sister?"

"You two got the same nose," he smirked, tapping a finger to the side of his. "But seriously, you all good? She seemed pretty frantic."

"Oh, that's just Anna for you. The Looney Toons Tasmanian Devil personified. Pretty sure she doesn't even know the meaning of the word 'calm.' But no, she's fine. We're good."

"Glad to hear it!" A pause. "So…" he said again, this time stretching the word out as he bounced the broom handle back and forth between his palms now. "...you eat, right?"

Hand still absently running the cloth along the glass, I raised an eyebrow at him. What kind of question was that? "...I have been known to on occasion, yes."

"Good. Any dinner plans tonight?"

I froze, eyes round.

Oh.

...was he asking what I think he was asking? I think he _was_ asking what I think he was asking. Why would he ask _that?!_ Wait... oh no… did he think that _I_ was thinking that he should ask what I think he was asking? Because if that's what he thought I was thinking, I most certainly was _not_ thinking that! Not even close! Unless… did this here right now count as me thinking that?

...hold up, now I'm confused... what was I thinking again?

Oh that's right.

I was thinking about him.

Asking.

Me.

Out.

Which I was so _not_ ready for! I mean come on, I had _just_ gotten out of a long term relationship! What was that rule? The one about how long after a breakup before you should start dating again? Something about waiting at least thirty minutes before getting back in the -

Wait no, that had to do with eating and pools…

Whatever, gah! However much time it's supposed to be, pretty sure it's more than just a few weeks if you'd not only been together for years, but also frigging _engaged_ to your ex!

Current relationship status aside, let's just be real here... I'm not sure if this was something I would _ever_ be ready for. Hello, Mayor of Hermit Island here! They throw hermit parades in my honor. Those parades have zero spectators and consist of one (1) person marching, that person being me, all alone, by myself, because it's Hermit Island and kind of the whole point! It was sort of a miracle I'd ever started dating in the first place, much less wound up with a _fianc_ _é_ of all things! When you think about it, and I mean _really_ think about it… how the frick had that even happened?! I'd been there, heck, I'd _lived_ it and even I was still scratching my head over that one. I mean, how had I _ever-_

"Hey now, what's with the-?" Lea's words broke me out of the word jumble that was my brain and my eyes darted over to him. His furrowed brow suddenly went slack and he blinked, heading rocking back. "Hold on, you don't think that I- That I'm asking you out on a- No! God no! No, no, no, that's not what this is!"

Oh thank goodness!

Wait… how did he know that's what I'd been thinking?

...could it be the fact that all the color had drained from my face and I had stopped breathing?

Speaking of which, I should really start that back up again.

Okay, all together now, one, two, three annnnnd sharp, deep inhale.

Whew, much better! Man, oxygen and I were having a real on-again, off-again relationship today.

"Not that there's anything _wrong_ with y- I mean, I wouldn't be _opposed_ to- that is, uh… aw, crap," he groaned, bonking his head against the top of the broom handle. "Forget it. Look, what I was trying to say was we - that is, the kiddos and I and a buncha other people who work at other stores 'round the mall, all of us get together every Friday night for food and drinks at the 7th Heaven. It's this nice little pub not too far from here and I dunno if booze is your thing or what, but the grub's pretty good there too, way better than your average bar food and so I was just wondering if you'd like to, I dunno… come join us and just hang out for a bit, have some fun. Interested?"

Ooooooooooh, got it! Well that was a relief!

...wait, was it?

Oh dear, just the _thought_ of me having to interact with that many people all at the same time was enough to make my soul leave my body. Because once again, I have to play the President of Hermit Island card here. That's right, I'd promoted myself from mayor to president within the last five minutes. I like to think I'd earned it after all my years of exemplary hermit service.

The point was, this little get-together sounded precisely like the kind of situation that I wanted to be on the polar opposite end of the planet from. Seriously, the Devil himself could not have designed a more fitting hell for me. Don't get me wrong, it was sweet that Lea had thought to include me and I'm sure all the other people going would be nice and everything, but... I just couldn't. I couldn't do it. Not with the cold, stabbing pangs of anxiety already coursing throughout my chest at even the mere mention of going to such a thing.

Luckily, I didn't have to. I had an out. A beautiful, glorious escape route courtesy of the one, the only, my savior (queue angelic choir singing)... Anna.

Clearing my throat, I managed a small smile. "Thank you, I appreciate the invite, I really do and I'm so sorry but I've already made plans with my sister. Speaking of," I glanced at the clock again before hurrying past him and back into the Ice Palace to drop off the cleaning rag, "I really should be going now, she's probably already waiting for me."

He slid off the countertop, spinning around to face me with a frown. "Aw, ya sure? Why don't you just bring her along too? We won't mind, the more the merrier!"

Still with the smile, now accompanied by a slight scrunching of my nose, I shook my head. "Mm, no, I don't think that'll work. But maybe next time, okay?" Slinging my bag over my shoulder, I stepped out from behind the counter once more and stretched up on my tippy-toes, reaching for the pull-down gate. Crud, why was I always so stupidly short?

"Let me." Him being the absolute Ent that he was, Lea had no trouble whatsoever reaching it and yanking it down for me.

"Thanks," I murmured before locking it up for the night, then turning and making my way towards the double doors leading outside.

"Hang on, I'll walk you out," he said, bringing me up short.

Turning my head back towards him, I held up a hand, "Oh no, that's fine, you don't have to!"

"I'm heading that way anyway." He started walking away backwards, jerking a thumb over his shoulder towards the Pizza Planet, "Just let me close up shop real quick."

"Really, it's not necessary. I'm just going to-"

"Be back in a sec!" he spun one-eighty, jogging off.

"...go," I finished weakly.

Well now what? I guess maybe I should wait? My eyes shifted to the doors longingly.

...well, I _did_ tell him he didn't need to walk me. Not my fault he couldn't hear me over the sound of his own chivalry.

Screw it. I'm leaving.

With a small grimace and one last peek back to where Lea had just disappeared, I turned away, squared my shoulders and strode off.

Pushing through the exit doors and out into the night air, I spotted Anna parked at the curb right in front of me in her bright red Porsche convertible, its top already folded back. She honked at me, calling, "Hey, hot stuff! Looking for a good time?"

I merely grinned and shook my head at her as I approached the vehicle. However, just as I was reaching for the car door, a voice called out behind me, "Wait up!"

I winced, screwing my eyes shut.

Fudge.

Lea came to a stop next to me, panting and hunching forward, planting his hands on his knees. He must have been running the whole way to make sure he caught me before I could esc- erm, I mean, before I _left_. He lifted his head, blasting us with the full force of those dimples of his as his gaze flicked back and forth between me and Anna. "You sure you ladies can't join us tonight?"

"Thanks, but-"

"Join you for what?" Anna cut me off, scooting closer by shifting from the driver's seat to the passenger, arms folding across the top of the door.

This. Right here. This was _exactly_ why I hadn't wanted him to walk me out.

"Nothing big," Lea straightened up, placing a hand on the car door as well and leaning against it. "Just drinks and food with some friends from work. If you can't change your plans though, that's totally cool, I just wanted to-"

Because once Anna found out...

"What are you talking about?!" she laughed. "Of _course_ we can change our plans! That sounds so fun, count us in!"

…there was no way I was getting out of it. Ugh.

"Wha- really?" No doubt about it. He was quite pleasantly surprised. "Great! The place we're meeting at is called 7th Heaven. Short drive from here." He waved to another car parked a few spaces further down the curb, which responded by flashing its blinkers, "That's Xion. She drew the short straw for designated driver tonight. Just follow her car and she'll lead you right to it!"

"Sounds good! See you there!" she waggled her fingers at Lea as he dashed off to get into the other car. Then she scooched back over behind the wheel, making room for me. Face pinching just a smidge, I sighed and got in, slamming the door shut behind me. Bouncing in her seat as she started the engine, she chirped, "Wow, we lucked out! This is gonna be a blast! You excited?"

"...thrilled," I said dryly, buckling myself in.

Welp. Let's get this over with.

Personal hell, here I come.

* * *

_**Author's note:** _ _Notice how much Anna says friggin'? Now those sound more fitting coming out of her, but Elsa grew up hearing those friggin's (and fricks) coming out of her sis for years now, so it may have rubbed off on her a lil. And more BBS ice creams sneak into this chapter - and I was mindful of their in-game descriptions too, so yes, it is in fact canon in the video game that the Snow Bear flavor has *shudders* tofu in it. TOFU. In ICE CREAM. Thanks, but no thanks!_

_Thank you so much for reading and to those of you who have shared with me your feelings on this story so far! If you have any friendly feedback, I would really appreciate hearing it!_


	9. Chapter 9

"What's with the sour face? I know your idea of fun on a Friday night is locking yourself up alone in your room all by yourself, but come on! Going out with a few peeps for a night on the town ain't gonna kill ya!"

I heaved out a sigh as Anna turned us into the same parking lot we'd just seen Xion's car go into. "It's not that, I just… I thought it was only going to be the two of us tonight. We haven't seen each other since… well, you know… and so much has happened and I just wanted a nice evening, just you and me, talking and catching up."

"And we can still do that," she nodded, pressing a couple buttons on her dashboard. As the convertible's top started to rise and all the windows slid back up, she parked in an open spot right beside Xion's little blue Prius and powered down the engine. "But now we get to party at the same time! Besides, this way I can meet all of your new friends too!"

Snatching my Ice Palace cap off my head and tossing it into the back seat, I gave a tiny huff. "These people _aren't_ my friends."

A couple of loud thuds against the left side of the car made us both jump in our seats before glancing to the source. Roxas and Xion had smooshed their noses up against the door windows, mouths wide open, lips suctioned against the glass and cheeks puffing in and out as they made funny faces at us. Anna snorted then burst out laughing, asking me, "Do _they_ know that?"

"I wasn't talking about _those_ two. Lea and them are my friends. Well…" I snagged a pale tendril of my hair to twist around my finger as I worried my bottom lip between my teeth. "...sort of…it's all still very new..." Then I shook my head and tightened my ponytail. "In any case, I meant everyone _else_ that's going to be at this thing. _They're_ not my friends because I don't know any of them."

"So this is how you _get_ to know them," she grinned, nudging her shoulder into mine. "Come on, sis, this'll be fun! I promise!"

"Don't go making promises you can't keep," I grumbled.

Just then, we watched Lea go sliding across the hood of Anna's Porsche in one smooth motion, bringing him to my side so he could open the car door for me. He bent into a half-bow, sweeping one arm out with a smile, "M'lady."

Anna giggled. "Ooooo, such a gentleman! I don't believe I've gotten your name yet."

"Lea," he leaned into the car, stretching across me to shake hands with her. Once again, I caught the faint whiff of cinnamon and had to resist the urge to squirm at his closeness. He smirked at her and winked, "Also answer to Mr Hottie-With-A-Body."

...so he _had_ heard that.

Great.

Just dandy.

My kingdom for a rock to crawl under right now.

"And you would be the sister, I take it?"

She grinned, "Anna. I'm thinking I like you already, Mr Hottie-W-"

I discreetly pinched her arm, shutting her up.

He didn't seem to notice as he looked past her to where the other two were still making like a pair of pufferfish against the glass. "And those gremlins out there are Xion and Roxas. They're harmless, just don't ever feed 'em after midnight. Hey!" he raised his voice so they could hear him. "Knock it off already, twerps!" They both pulled away, Xion hiding a snigger behind one hand while Roxas razzed his tongue. Shaking his head, the smile returned as Lea at last backed out of the car to straighten up again, "Well then, shall we?"

To my credit, I only hesitated for a second before exiting the vehicle, tugging at the hem of my skirt slightly as I stepped out onto the asphalt. Ugh, I hadn't even had a chance to change out of my work clothes before getting sucked into all of this, so I didn't even have the small consolation of being dressed comfortably. My eyes followed Xion and Roxas as they ran ahead to 7th Heaven, or so the gigantic, yellow neon sign hanging above the door proclaimed. It was a rustic, wooden building with a small set of stairs leading up to the wraparound patio. There was a warm glow coming through the fogged windows and muffled music could be heard from within.

Anna pushed a button on her key fob and the Porsche beeped as all its doors locked. Then she latched onto my arm, practically skipping as we made our way to the entrance. Lea dashed out in front, taking the steps two at a time and holding the door open for us. As we climbed up onto the deck as well, I could now hear the murmur of voices and laughter coming from inside as well. I gulped, my stomach sinking.

If it weren't for Anna clinging to me like a two ton anchor, I'd probably have made a break for the hills by now.

And she knew that, which was exactly why she was doing it.

Traitor.

And so it was that I, with little choice or say in the matter, was dragged by my sister into the dreaded bowels of El Diablo.

...I'm not sure what I'd expected to hear upon descending into the terrifying Underworld, but it certainly hadn't been the perky pop beat of _Barbie Girl_.

A strange, but oddly fitting soundtrack for eternal damnation.

The music was coming from a small stage all the way in the back of the place where some young woman was badly singing karaoke under spotlights. Between us and her was a massive, dimly lit room packed with tables and people cheering her on as they drank their presumably alcoholic beverages. Off to one side was a long bar, crowded with customers and tended by a brunette who, ahem… could only be described as the very epitome of the term 'one busty babe.' The wall opposite the bar was lit up with flashing lights from a row of retro pinball and arcade machines.

"We usually stake out one of the back corners for ourselves and spread out from there," I barely heard Lea say over all the noise. I glanced back at him to see him squinting as his eyes scanned the darkness before his face brightened and he pointed off to our right. "Over there! Follow me."

Anna gave my arm a reassuring squeeze and I replied with a thin, shaky smile.

There were just... so… many… _people_.

We navigated through the throng behind Lea, his blazing hair like a guiding light in the shadows, showing us the way. With every step we took, the knots in my gut pulled tighter and my knees grew numb. This was it. It was time…

...to mingle.

(Shudder.)

The three of us came to a stop at a large table. Half the people seated were all still in their work duds too, making me feel a little better about my attire, but not by much. Everyone looked up to warmly greet Lea before all eyes turned to me and I resisted the urge to shrink behind Anna. "Hey guys!" Lea shouted over the roar of the pub. "This is Elsa and her sister, Anna! El here is the newest scoop slinger at Ice Palace, so you've probably already seen her around."

"So _you're_ the fresh meat," one woman smirked at me. I recognized her from the greek food place that was Ice Palace's neighbor. "Pleasure. Name's Megara. My friends call me Meg."

"Tiana," the girl sitting next to her in a cute green dress smiled.

"She's a server at that lil Cajun grill also in the food court," Lea supplied before cocking his head at her. "Boyfriend couldn't make it tonight?"

She immediately frowned and averted her gaze. Meg gently pat her on the back, shooting him a tiny scowl, "Smooth move, ya knucklehead. They broke up."

"Oops," he chuckled awkwardly. "Hey, don't sweat it, Tiana. You know what they say - gotta kiss a few frogs and whatnot." Crickets from the table. "Heh, get it? Cuz you work at… aw, too soon?" He cleared his throat, "Oookay, moving on! Next, I'm sure you've seen these three over at Lucky Cat." He waved a hand towards a familiar blue-haired chick, her stocky coworker with slicked back, chocolate locks, and what I was guessing was Roxas's doppelganger, not Roxas himself. Lea pointed to each in turn, "Aqua, Terra, and Ventus."

"You're the place with the super sweet tabby I got to cuddle earlier!" Anna said excitedly.

Aqua laughed, "That's Chirithy, Ven's pet. He likes to bring him into work sometimes. The cat's so well behaved, management doesn't mind."

Ventus scratched the back of his head with a lopsided grin. "Yeah, I'm lucky. He's sorta become the unofficial mascot of our café."

"Then Grumpy-Pants over here is Squall and-"

"That's Leon," a guy with a scar slashed across the bridge of his nose corrected with a growl into his beer.

"Riiiiiight, forgot you were rebranding," Lea snerked. "He works over at Buster's Swords, the replica weapon shop in the mall. And last but most certainly not least, this little one here is Naminé," he indicated a petite blonde sitting between Ven and Leon, who gave a shy wave. "When she's on the clock, you can find Nams at The Crayon Box for all your art supply needs."

"Lovely to meet you both," she nodded at us. "We're currently rooting on our friend Ariel," she pointed to the stage. It was only now upon second glance that I recognized the girl up there currently murdering _Barbie Girl_ as the redhead from the fish store.

Lea winced as a particularly bad note was hit before he snorted. "Girl's usually got a voice that'd put mythical sirens to shame, but she's just getting over a cold. Couldn't talk for three days. Now that she's started getting it back, there's no keeping her away from the mic. RIP eardrums." Then he clapped his hands together once, "Alrighty, on to Table Numeros Dos!"

...numeros dos?

As in more than one? As in this wasn't it? As in _more_ people?

If I survived this night, it'd be a miracle.

At least the first table hadn't been _too_ bad. Everyone else had done all the talking, which was a-okay by me.

...unless… crud, did they think I was boring now? Or worse, that I was sticking my nose up at them? Well I wasn't! Trust me, there was absolutely zero nose sticking up going on here! My nose was down! Way, way, _way_ down! So far down, it was past the secret civilization of mole people and halfway to China by now!

Dammit, only five minutes in and pretty sure I was already screwing everything up. And I hadn't even _done_ anything yet!

Lea shifted a couple steps over to an adjacent booth against the wall and Anna followed, tugging me into a stumble after her. Grabbing the attention of this new group, he announced, "Yo, everyone! I'd like ya to meet-"

"Elsa?"

I locked eyes with a golden gaze I knew all too well at this point and blinked. "Rayne?"

She scrambled out of the booth to hurl herself at me and I staggered to stay upright under the sheer might of her hug. Then I heard her gasp, "Anna too?! Get in here, girl!" I grunted as Anna dogpiled into the embrace. "Haven't seen you since you were an ankle biter at summer camp! What are you doing here?! In fact, what are you _both_ doing here?"

"What are _we_ doing here?" I repeated incredulously as we all pulled apart, my eyes flicking down to her belly then back up. "What are _you_ doing here? Did you forget you're, uh… drinking for two now?"

A squeal from Anna, "Oh my gawd, Ray-Ray, your friggin' preggers?! Congratulations! Who's the lucky stud who knocked dat fine ass of yours up?"

My sister, ladies and gentleman. Ever the classiest of dames.

Rayne turned, yanking her husband out of the booth and onto his feet beside her. Wrapping her arms around his waist, she smiled smugly. "This is Riku. Riku, meet Anna, Elsa's little sister. And don't worry," she turned her attention back to me, rolling her eyes, "all my drinks are virgin."

"Though Ray is what you might call an empathic drunk," Riku snerked, slinging an arm around her shoulders.

I quirked an eyebrow, "A what?"

"The more people get liquored up around me, the drunker I get without sipping a single drop. It's an odd phenomenon, I don't do it on purpose, but not complaining either. All the perks of intoxication, none of the hangover!" Then she furrowed her brow at me, "But no, seriously, what are you doing here? This ain't exactly your scene."

"I kinda kidnapped her," Anna hummed out a tiny, evil laugh. "She's my hostage tonight. She's gonna have fun whether she likes it or not!"

I was firmly in the "or not" camp.

Rayne grinned at her, folding her arms together, "Then that brings us back around to what _you're_ doing here… where did you even come from?"

As the two of them began to catch up while Riku listened in, Lea snagged my elbow, pulling me over closer to the booth once more.

Oh. Right. Socializing. I'd almost forgotten.

Ahhh forgetting. T'was a better, simpler, blessed time. Now, as I was presented with another small horde of new faces, I felt my heart rate spike and my chest tighten as the butterflies battled for dominance in my stomach again.

So be it. Once more into the breach! Come on, Elsa, you can do this!

"Now then, before I was so _rudely_ interrupted-"

"Shove it, Red!" my roommate snapped.

"Screw off, Raindrop!" He stuck his tongue out at her, then sniggered to me, "Remember, verbal abuse says you care! Anyway, I'm sure you're already very familiar with this mall rat we all know and love, given he's almost a big an ice cream junkie as I am." Sora beamed up at me from his seat. "But have you met this half-pint's amazing, intelligent, beautiful and might I add _way_ out of his league girlfriend, Kairi?"

He was gesturing to a pretty redhead dolled up in pink who smirked around the straw in her drink as she glanced out of the corner of her eye at Sora beside her. "Any comment to that?"

He shrugged, leaning back as he laced his fingers behind his head and his already impossibly huge smile somehow managed to get even wider. "Can't argue facts!"

"She, like her boy here, is also a local mall rat, but we take pity on these poor schmucks who have nothing else in their pathetic, empty lives and let them hang out with us cool kids whenever we all get together like this," Lea teased.

"Hey now, ex-mall rat!" she harrumphed before proudly puffing up her chest. "You're looking at Mickey's newest hire as of today!"

Lea arched an eyebrow, "No shit, really? Congratz, princess! Welcome to the crush of the daily grind. It sucks! Enjoy!"

Kairi snorted. "Please, it won't be all that terrible. I'm gonna work a counter in the jewelry department. I can already tell my favorite part's gonna be helping customers with the charm bracelets. Look!" she jangled the band she was wearing around her wrist before lifting up one of the little trinkets dangling from it. "This one looks like a thalassa shell star from my home, Destiny Islands!" Then she narrowed her eyes at Sora, one corner of her lips quirking up. "Now if only this lazy bum would get a job too, we'd be set!"

"Gimme a break, Kairi, I'm working on it!" Sora half whined, half laughed.

"Uh oh, do I smell trouble in paradise? We'll leave the two lovebirds to it then," Lea then turned my attention to a slender chick with short black hair sitting next to Kairi, who waggled her fingers at me with a crooked grin. "This is Yuffie! She works with Squ- 'scuse me, _Leon_ over at Buster's Swords." He lowered his voice to a whisper behind his hand, "She likes to steal the merch for her own personal amusement."

She scoffed, "You shut your whore mouth, I don't steal! I just… _borrow_ for _quality testing!_ I'm doing a community service here, really!"

He shook his head, "Uh huh, sure, whatever you say. So what's on the menu for today?"

Couldn't tell from where exactly, but she suddenly pulled out a pair of ninja stars as her lips curved wickedly. "Shurikens!"

"Nope!" Leon pressed one hand to the edge of his table, leaning his chair back onto its hind legs so he could stretch an arm across the booth and snatch the weapons from her grasp.

"Hey!" she lunged after them but only ended up faceplanting into her own table. "Give those back, jerkface!" He ignored her, just taking another swig from the bottle in front of him. "Wow, rude much?!"

This place was an absolute madhouse.

"Oof, that's rough! Better luck next time," Lea consoled her before pointing to the next person wedged into the booth, a girl with a blue bow tying back her brown hair. "And here we have Belle! Total bookworm, so no surprise her nine-to-five's at Enchanted Castle Books." She didn't acknowledge us, just stared dreamily off into space while absently stirring the liquid in her glass with a straw. Lea sighed, "Yeah, she's a real head-up-in-the-clouds sort."

"I got this," Yuffie chimed in before using a hand to shade her gaze as she raised her voice, "Hey, is that Gaston I see?"

Belle snapped out of it, eyes round in horror as she gasped, "Where?!" before ducking down to use the table for cover.

As Yuffie cracked up, Kairi swatted her in the shoulder, "Mean!"

"Gaston's the local musclebound, meathead neanderthal who's set his sights on Belle as his next conquest," Lea explained.

"Don't worry, sweetie," Yuffie's eyes gleamed as she produced a third metal star. "I'll make sure he never bothers you again."

"For the love of- _another_ one?!" In a quick blur of movement, Leon had once again confiscated her toy, much to her dismay.

"Finally," Lea jumped in once again, clapping his hand down on the shoulder of a carrot-top sitting on the end with giant purple headphones covering his ears, "this regular chatterbox is Neku, who gets his paycheck from Towa Records, the lil music store around the corner from the food court."

Yuffie huffed, "I dunno why Orangeylocks even bothers to show up to these things since," she leaned across the table to lift up one of his hulking muffs and yell into his ear, "he never bothers to take the stupid 'phones off!"

He slapped her hand away with a glare and said nothing, simply crossed his arms and slouched further down into his seat.

Still I hadn't said a word to anyone besides Rayne. Partly because all the anxiety was squeezing my throat shut - trust me, the terror was real. But even if I had been brave enough to actually make small talk with this pack of total strangers, it was impossible to get a word in edgewise. It was all just happening so fast. But hey, maybe I could get away with the whole not talking thing. This Neku guy seemed to be and he was getting along just fine. Maybe the secret was in the headphones.

Note to self: look into the possibility of purchasing ear buds with first paycheck in the hopes of avoiding human interaction at all costs.

"Okay, almost done, just one more table to go," Lea chirped.

Hearing that was both a relief and a minor heart attack all rolled together. The good news: one more table, woo! The bad news: one more table, ugh!

As Lea led the way once more, I snagged Anna by the elbow. It was her fault I was in this mess, so there was no way I was letting her abandon me. She was my security blanket, dammit! She managed to get out a hasty "we'll talk more in a minute" to Rayne before staggering along behind me. We were brought to the neighboring booth which took up a corner so it was slightly bigger. Thankfully, that didn't equal a larger group seated here. Even better, I already knew two of the faces.

"Rox! Xion!" Lea grinned down at them. "So this is where you guys got to. Was beginning to think I might have to send out search parties. I-"

"Kristoff," the name escaped my lips before I'd even realized it as I locked eyes with my coworker.

Make that _three_ faces I recognized.

His eyelids drooped before he looked away with a harrumph, taking a deep drag from his mug.

Well fudge. Guess he was still mad about the phone.

This night just kept getting better and better!

"Brr, did it just get a few degrees colder in here? Ah well, forget it, just leave Lord Sourpuss here to his brooding," Lea snerked with a roll of his eyes. "For the rest at the table who haven't already had the pleasure, this is Elsa, the Ice Palace newbie, and her sister Anna who tagged along for funsies."

He tossed a hand towards a guy with amber eyes, messy raven hair, and was the poster boy for goth fashion. "That ray of sunshine over there is Vanitas - living, breathing proof that all our moms were always right: your face really _can_ get stuck like that. Wow, misery really does love company, huh? Just look at those identical scowls." Both Vanitas and Kristoff looked highly unamused with Lea. He responded with a smirk, leaning down to bring his face closer to Vanitas, "What's with the pout, widdle man? Did one of the other kids steal your binky?"

"Bite me, jackass," he deadpanned.

"You'd love that, wouldn't you?" Lea waggled his eyebrows as he straightened back up. "Anyhoo, as you might've already guessed by just taking one look at the edgelord, Vaniboy here works at Halloween Town."

"Halloween Town?" Anna echoed, tapping a thoughtful finger to her lips. "Isn't that the line of shops that are kinda like Hot To-"

"Say that knock-off, poser, wannabe of a store's name and die," Vanitas sneered.

Lea said, "Don't mind him, he's just cranky cuz he missed out on afternoon naptime." Vanitas flipped him the bird, which went totally ignored as Lea shifted his gaze to the other side of the table. "Woah, talk about a mismatched set. What are you two doing hanging out with Mr Negativity here?"

He was now addressing a sweet-faced brunette with bright green eyes and the boy beside her with sandy blonde spiked hair, a skull and crossbones printed on his shirt. The girl chuckled, "Oh come on, Van's not that bad."

"Yeah, once you get past his personality," the guy sniggered. Vanitas just looked away with a soft _tch._

"Meet Olette and Hayner. They- wait..." Lea glanced around the table a second time with a frown, "There's usually one more of you. Where's Pence?"

"Couldn't make it," Olette sighed, plopping her chin in her palm. "Had to finish his programming project for his Computer Sciences course. Said he'll be at it all weekend."

"Bummer," Lea shrugged. "In any case, these two plus their missing amigo wait tables at Le Grand Bistrot, this hoity-toity restaurant on the opposite end of the mall from the rest of us. Though didn't you guys get shut down recently for a rodent infestation?"

Hayner banged a fist against the table, "Ugh, will people stop talking about that already? We didn't get shut down, it was _one_ rat and it was just that klutzy garbage boy's _pet_ , got it?!"

A snort from Roxas. "Sounds fake, but okay."

"Can it, pizza boy!" Hayner shot back.

"Touchy, touchy," Lea tsked before his eyes made one more sweep of the surrounding tables. "Anyway, looks like that's everyone! How 'bout it? Got it all memorized? If not, don't sweat it, it _was_ a lot. And even more might show up later, who knows, these things are always sort of a random grab bag but that's half the fun! In any case, feel free to take a seat." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder, "I'm gonna go order a drink from the bar. Did either of you want me to grab you anything while I'm over there?"

"Is this a menu?" Anna picked up the glossy, colorful sheet of plastic from the table, looking over the list printed on it with a low hum. "I think a basket of the Cactuar Fries would be good for starters. As for drink, hm… Ooo, the Golden Chocobo sounds amazing! What about you?" she tilted it to give me a better look.

I shook my head, "Just water for me, thanks."

Her tongue blew a raspberry, eyes returning to the menu. "That's no fun. Lessee here… aha!" She smiled up at Lea, "She'll have a Shiva, heavy on the rum."

"I will most certainly _not_ have a-"

"Got it!" Lea darted off across the room, cupping a hand to his mouth and calling out, "Oh, Tifa!"

Anna then proceeded to flump down into the booth next to Kristoff, giggling as she peeked up at him. "Hi! You're cute!"

He blinked at her, all traces of the previous doom-and-gloom wiped clean off his face as it reddened slightly. "Uh…?"

She wiggled in closer to him, which seemed to fluster him more as he scrabbled over into Vanitas, who elbowed him back hard for making him almost spill his drink. Oblivious to the domino effect she'd created, Anna whipped her head back around to me and patted a hand on the space she'd freed up at the edge of the booth. "Whatcha waiting for, Sis? Sit!"

I stared blankly at her. She beamed back at me. I glanced over to everyone else. Everyone else watched me expectantly. I then flicked my gaze down to the open seat. It just lay there, being a cushion.

...psssst, dummy. Her telling you to sit? Was your cue to _actually_ sit!

Still my feet didn't budge an inch. Instead I looked over my shoulder back towards the door leading outside. So close, yet so far.

Clearing my throat, I took a small step backwards and held up a hand, "A-actually, you know what? I think I, uh... left something... back in the car! Yeah, that's it! So I'll just, er… I'll go get-"

"I said _sit!_ " Anna grabbed my wrist and jerked me down onto the plush bench beside her.

Well then. I guess I was sitting.

I suddenly felt a light brush of something against the back of my head and I twitched away, looking behind me. Rayne was leaning over the divider between our two booths, hands outstretched, apparently with the intention of petting both Anna and me. "Pretty," she cooed in delight. "Pretty, pretty hair. So soft!"

From somewhere beyond the separator, I heard Riku mutter, "It's starts." His voice was muffled. I suspected due to facepalm. Taking a small bundle of my hair and tucking it between her palm and two little fingers, Rayne then set the other three fingers and hand to work unraveling one of Anna's pigtail braids.

Anna didn't seem to mind, instead just turning her gaze to the rest of our booth and flashing a smile big enough to rival one of Sora's. "It's so great to meet everyone! This is super exciting! Isn't is just so exciting?" she asked me. I opened my mouth, but Anna was already gushing once more, "And oh my gawd, so, so, so, sooooo much fun! I'm already having a blast! Are you having a blast?" Again, this question was aimed at me. Again, I didn't even get so much as a peep out. "Aaaah, lookit her, she's having a friggin' blast! This is awesome! So how long have you guys all been getting together like this? Who started it? Was it just a small group at first? Were you guys always friends even before these Friday nights began? Do you ever change it up, get food and drinks somewhere else? Or is it always the 7th Heaven? Why _is_ it called the 7th Heaven anyway? What's the story there? What's the food like? No, what are the _drinks_ like? Did I pick good ones? I hope I picked good ones! And I just _love_ that they have karaoke here! Anyone else going to be singing later? Ooo, here's an idea! We could all go up and sing one _together!_ "

Typhoon Anna had struck again, leaving round eyes and silence in her wake.

I was guessing most everyone else at the table hadn't even caught half of that, the torrent of words had been coming out in such a rush.

The hush over the table stretched until Vanitas at last broke it with a flat, "Yeah, no, I'm out. I've had about all the pep I can stand from that pack of idiots," he flicked a wrist towards the half the table taken up by Xion, Olette, Roxas and Hayner, "without having to deal with… _this_ ," he cringed, gesturing to Anna. Then he downed the rest of his beverage. "Later, losers." And with that, he vaulted himself over the table, shoved his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket and slinked off.

"So…" Anna dragged out the syllable, "...he's pleasant!"

Certainly one word for it.

"Vani bail early?" Lea rejoined us. "No shocker there, he usually does. He's always been more of a lone wolf. Make room, Fun-size!" he looked down at where Xion was seated at the opposite end of the booth from us. She scooched to clear a spot for him and he plopped on down, setting a full, opened bottle on the table in front of him bearing a red label that boasted the title _Ifrit Amber Ale_. "Ladies, your drinks n' fries are gonna need another minute. Someone'll be by to drop them off when they're ready."

A small smile braved my lips, "Thanks, how much do we owe you?"

Or rather, how much did _Anna_ owe him? Since A, she _was_ the one that'd ordered it all and B, I'd yet to earn a single cent to my name.

Soon though. Payday was coming.

He batted a hand, "Don't worry about it, my treat. And, uh," he snerked, "you might want to keep a closer eye on what Raindrop's up to over there."

I blinked. I had been feeling a faint tingle in my scalp as Rayne had continued to play beauty salon back there this whole time, but I'd just been ignoring it. Now both Anna and I turned to discover she'd weaved locks of our hair together into one thick, auburn-and-platinum braid. "I made a pretty!" Rayne giggled, punctuated by a hiccup.

Biting back a grin, Xion called, "Hey Riku! Control your woman!"

A hand shot up and grabbed Rayne by the scruff of the shirt. With a squeak, she disappeared behind the booth separator.

"So," Olette shook her head, one corner of her lips tugging up, "how are you liking it over at Ice Palace?"

...shoot, she was talking to me, wasn't she?

I was so _not_ prepared for this.

Glancing up from where my fingers had already begun disentangling the braid Anna and I shared joint custody off, I pursed my lips to one side. "Hmm, well… it's pretty good actually. This is my first job ever, so I was a bit anxious." Understatement of the millenia. "But it's been going well. And I like the people I work with and get along with them and uh…" I eyed Kristoff out of my peripheral, who still seemed rather dazed by Anna and the apparent lack of the phrase 'personal boundaries' in her vocabulary, "...and they like me and are very kind and welcoming and… certainly not _mad_ or anything at me for, oh I don't know, hypothetically lobbing and busting their phones, like I would ever do something so silly as that, why would I even mention such a thing, that's so random," the jumble of words finished in a weak chuckle.

It was beginning to become clear to me that the tendency to babble might run in my family.

Only mine was of the nervous variety, whereas I don't think Anna had a nervous bone in her body.

At last sensing my gaze on him, Kristoff shook himself out of his stupor and looked back at me. Then he frowned, narrowed his eyes and stared down at the table, nursing his drink once more.

"Oh yeah," Xion snorted, "I can _definitely_ feel the love simply overflowing from that side of the table."

"Sounds like a sweet gig," Hayner chimed back into the conversation with a smirk as he crossed his arms. "But then, _anything's_ gotta be better than working at some lame dump of a pizza place."

"Ouch, shots fired." Lea cocked an eyebrow, "What's with the drive-by, my dude?"

Roxas snickered, "Ignore him. He's still just sore about the whole rat thing."

"There _wasn't_ a rat thing! I told you already, it was just some dumb pet so it doesnt count!"

"Sure," Roxas sighed, "Just keep telling yourself that, man."

"That's it!" Hayner snarled, slamming both hands down on the table as he rocketed up to his feet. "It's time we settle this like men!"

Olette groaned, burying her face in her hands. "Tell me you did _not_ really just say that, you total caveman."

Hayner stabbed a finger towards Roxas and growled, "You." Then jerked a thumb into his chest, "Me." He pointed at one of the arcade machines, "Struggle 9000. Loser buys rounds for the table for the next five Fridays."

"Come on, you two," Olette interjected, "is this really-"

Lea clamped a hand over her mouth, one index finger held up to his lips, "Shush, I want free booze."

"You're on!" Roxas shot back, eyes flashing. Then the both of them were ducking down and crawling under the table to exit the booth before dashing over to where the video games awaited them, elbowing each other the whole way.

"Wanna go root the boys on?" Olette asked Xion.

"Pfft, root nothing. I'm taking on winner and curb stomping his ass. Play my cards right and I'll have them _both_ buying our drinks for weeks to come."

As Lea slid out of the booth so the two of them could get up and leave, Olette laughed, "Oh, I bet Hayner would be simply _thrilled_ by that prospect."

"Please, you think that bonehead's gonna come out the champ?" Xion scoffed as they walked off. "Rox has got him beat, no contest."

"Wanna bet?"

That was the last thing I heard from Olette before a happy shriek barely an inch to my left drowned out anything else that might have been said.

Gee thanks, Anna. Really, who needs hearing in both ears anyway?

Our order had arrived, which apparently was what had gotten her so excited. A heaping bowl of shoestring fries now steamed in front of us, covered and smothered in some chunky green sauce. Anna's drink started out orange at the bottom and faded into a yellow at the frothy top where in the absence of one of the standard teeny decorative umbrellas, it was instead garnished with a fluffy, yellow feather. My drink was a chilly, neon blue color and served in a tall, skinny glass with wafting mist and a frosted rim.

"Bottoms up!" Anna singsonged, clinking her beverage to mine before chugging down half of it in one go. I pulled a face at her, scrunching my nose with a grimace. She puffed out a content sigh as she put the glass back down at the table. "Ah, that's good!" Then her eyes darted between me and my drink a couple times. "Well? What are you waiting for? Get your drink on, gurl!"

"No thanks," I nudged the Shiva away with a fingertip. "Someone has to drive us home, so I guess that someone's going to be me."

"Pssh, details," she waved a dismissive hand while she tested out one of the fries. Eyes lighting up, she shoveled a couple more in her mouth before pushing my drink back towards me. "C'mon, one sip won't kill ya! Besides, you're hurting Lea's feelings over there, he spent his hard earned munny on it just for you!"

"Nah, it's cool," he shrugged and grinned. "You do you, El!"

"Dude, work with me here! You're supposed to back me up on this, I-" Anna cut herself off in a gasp. Seemed there had been a lull in the karaoke, so someone had kicked on the big vintage jukebox off to one side, which was now pumping regular tunes out of the overhead speakers. "I _love_ this song!" Her hand clamped down around Kristoff's wrist, "Dance with me!"

"Wha-?!"

I was all but shoved out of the booth as Anna bolted off, dragging a wide eyed and stumbling Kristoff behind her. I watched her go, shaking my head with a tired smile. Anna would never change. But then, who'd want her to? She was kind of perfect the way she was, chaotic energy and all. Sighing, I took a seat again and looked up.

That's when I froze.

Because that's when it hit me.

Somehow, my booth had gone from being packed to being empty. Well, almost…

There was still me.

And there was still a certain redhead.

And to be fair, my plan had been to spend the evening with a redhead. Just said redhead was supposed to have been petite, female, and my sister. The redhead before me now? Checked off _none_ of those boxes.

So instead of the night of sisterly bonding like I'd been looking forward to, I'd somehow wound up in a bar.

At a table.

With Lea.

By ourselves.

Just the two of us.

Alone...

Help! SOS! Frantic smoke signals! I was not mentally or emotionally equipped to deal with this situation!

Commence cardiac arrest in three… two…

* * *

_**Author's note:** _ _Hi, yes, welcome to Cameo Palooza, where we got references coming out the wazoo! This chapter and events in next chapter were originally all supposed to be one chapter, but the references just kept going and going… I honestly didn't expect them to go on for as long as they did, but here we are xD Not gonna lie, I took an odd amount of pleasure in giving Lea and Elsa drinks to match to their respective elements/summons._

_Thank you so much for reading and to those of you who have shared with me your feelings on this story so far! If you have any friendly feedback, I would really appreciate hearing it!_


	10. Chapter 10

It's times like these that I really do wonder which is more nerve-racking: being thrust into a social interaction unwillingly with a whole bunch of people? Or unwittingly with just one single, solitary person?

With the large group, it was definitely and without a doubt overwhelming. Just finding the strength alone to speak up and join in the conversation was a skill that still escaped me. And even if you did manage to get so much as two words out, that meant all eyes were suddenly on you. What if you talked too much? Or too little? What if you forgot what you were saying at all? Or worse, what if you said something stupid? What if you embarrassed yourself so bad that there'd be no showing your face ever again in the light of day, much less to another human being?

Which, if I'm being totally honest, I would probably find kind of amazing.

Hermit for life, yo.

But then, there were also advantages to the crowd. The biggest one being that an antisocial, cave-dwelling troll like me? More often than not could get away with saying nothing at all. Everyone else could handle all the chit-chat while I simply faded into the background and soaked up the ambiance. That way, I could just make an appearance and give the illusion of being socially active without _actually_ being socially active.

One-on-one exchanges, on the other hand? Now those were a whole other beast. No, make that whole other _species_.

There was no fading into the background here. There wasn't even a background _to_ fade into. All there was was you and the other person. A person you were expected to carry half of the conversation with. When put on the spot like that with someone I barely knew, forget having a back-and-forth dialogue like a normal and well-adjusted friggin' adult, I was lucky if I got anything out of my mouth more sophisticated than "uh" or "um." Then there were the awkward silences where I'd frantically try to come up with something, _anything_ to say only to have my useless lump of a brain play possum and draw a total blank. I died a thousand and one deaths in those damn silences.

And okay, sure, this was Lea we were talking about. An individual who by now I'd shockingly, and on more than one occasion no less, made reasonably successful small talk with. But a few minutes of a lunch break here or some brief, friendly banter while I was taking his order as my customer there was _completely_ different than now finding myself alone with him in a booth at some random pub on a Friday night.

And besides, it was _Lea_. Lea, who I'd seen shirtless and slathered in ice cream. Lea, whose lips my lips had thrown themselves at within the first five minutes of meeting him. Lea, who-

Damn it, brain, really? Was now _really_ the best time to be playing the highlight reel of Elsa's Greatest Embarrassing Hits?

Needless to say?

I.

Was.

_Terrified_.

Anna Fryse, if you could please report to the table in the back right corner, your older sister is waiting for you and is in desperate need of someone to hide behind right about now.

Also, Anna, if you were ever planning on developing the ability to psychically read thoughts, particularly mine, now would be the time to do it.

...of course, for her to hear that message, she'd need to already be psychic.

And if she was, that meant she was ignoring me.

Which she totally would do.

Brat.

Checking back into reality momentarily, it was in this second that it came to my attention that I was staring at Lea without realizing it. Well _now_ I realized it. Particularly because he was looking back at me with a smile. My heart flatlined, my face paled and my eyes darted away.

Oh god, I had been staring. Did he know I'd been staring? ...of _course_ he did, Elsa you dope! That's generally what two people do when they're sitting together at a table talking.

Talking. Right. That was a thing I should be doing.

Alright, brain, I know you're doing your best impersonation of the sound of a mime convention in there right now, but I'm going to need you to work with me here. Think of a word. Any word. Just something to get the conversation rolling. Oh yes. I can feel it. Here it comes. And that word is…

Flamingo.

...seriously, brain? Hadn't we already said all that there was to say on the subject of flamingos earlier during the little palm notes debacle? Need we bring that back up again? I mean, I do see where you're coming from - once you ask a man what he does in his flamingo, what else more is there to discuss with him, really? Might as well just-

"Fabracadabra?"

Lea's voice broke through my thoughts, drawing my eyes back to him.

Wow. Now _that_ was a really good word.

_Way_ better than my lame word. Pssh, flamingo? What was that even about?

Wait… his word was also the name of another one of our ice cream flavors.

He took a swig from his ale as he studied me for a second, cocking his head before at last shaking it. "Nope. Too fruity sweet. You're the type o' gal who likes something with a lil more..." he clicked his teeth together with a smirk, "...bite to it."

I blinked, some of my tension relaxing. Then my lips were doing something strange. Was it that crazy thing all the kids were doing nowadays, what's it called? I believe the term was… grinning? "You're… still trying to guess which one is my favorite?"

"Just you wait and see," he scooched around the booth to sit closer to me, sliding the _Ifrit_ bottle along the table with him, "I'm gonna get it. Mark my word."

Turning my head slightly, I gave him some side-eye. "...you seem pretty sure of yourself."

"With good reason! I'm twelve-and-oh, baby. Haven't been wrong yet. Trust me, your top pick off the Ice Palace menu is as good as called."

"Who ever said it was an Ice Palace signature flavor?"

His head rocked back at that, then he narrowed his eyes, "You play dirty."

I hid a smile behind my fingers. "Want a hint?"

"Nah," he leaned back, propping his elbows on the high back rim of the booth and stretching his long legs out under the table, crossed at the ankles. "Hints are for game show contestants and lame-os who lack self-confidence."

"And you certainly have no shortage of confidence."

He beamed, closing his eyes. "Nope! Who has two thumbs and is one cocky ass mofo?" Said two thumbs pointed at himself. "This guy."

A soft snort escaped me and I shook my head. "No doubt about that," I murmured as I looked away.

You know what? Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad afterall. Actually, it was turning out kind of... nice.

My gaze settled on Anna and Kristoff out there. It was all the poor boy could do to keep up with my sister on the dance floor. She even tossed him out into a spin at one point, much to his surprise if the face he made was any clue. But he seemed to be coming around to the whole experience. It even looked like he might be, dare I say it, having fun. They both did. Watching the two of them had me feeling an upward tug at one corner of my lips.

"So how 'bout it?" I heard Lea ask.

I looked back at him, quirking an eyebrow. "How about what?"

His eyes crinkled as he nodded towards an open spot out in the middle of the pub. "Wanna dance?"

Cue sound of shattering glass.

"Ack! My drink!" Rayne yelped from the booth behind me. "Sorry, I'll pay to replace the cup!"

As for me? I'd choked. On what? My heart launching itself up into my throat would be my guess.

"W-with you?" my mouth blurted out without consulting me first.

"No, with Grand High King Fuddy-Duddy over there sporting the scar," he tapped a finger to the bridge of his nose, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, with me."

Why? Why would he ask-? What could he possibly be- _Oh!_ Oh I get it now! He was just being _nice!_ Yeah, that had to be it. He just wanted to make sure I had fun tonight. That I felt included. He was being a good friend. He really was a very sweet guy.

But me? Dance with Lea? _Me?_ Who cowered and fled at the first sign of any form of human contact? Nope. Couldn't do it. Quite simply no way, no how. Dancing with Lea meant I'd have to get close to him. That I'd have to _touch_ him. Er… not to say that there was anything _wrong_ with touching him! I mean, it actually might be quite pleasant to-

Wait, what?

Uh… let's just put a pin in _that_ wayward thought there and come back to it later, like say, oh I don't know… never. In the meantime, Lea was still waiting on my answer.

I opened my mouth to give it.

All that came out was a squeak.

...let's try that again, shall we?

Clearing my throat and snatching a wisp of my hair to tangle around my fingers, I at last got out a hasty, "No, I don't think so."

Was that harsh? It sounded harsh. Ugh, this is why I don't do people!

He tsked and sighed. "It's cuz I'm ugly, isn't it?"

"What?!" I blanched before quickly shaking my head. "No! No, no, no! That's not it! Not because you're ugly! I mean, you're not! Ugly, that is! Not at all! Far from it, you're very-" I slapped both hands over my mouth, face roasting.

Shut up. Shut up right now.

I watched him bend forward, planting one elbow on the table and chin in his palm as he now eyed me with a wide, cheshire grin. "Do go on, I'm all ears. I'm very…?"

Oh this smug, son of a…

My eyelids drooped and I lowered my hands. "...very manipulative in fishing for compliments."

"Guilty," he snerked, leaning back once more and slouching a bit into the cushions. His grin twitched wider, "So, that's a hard no then?"

I couldn't help a tiny smile of my own. "Sorry. I... just don't dance."

"No worries. Figured you might say something like that. But couldn't pass up the chance to ask either," he winked, taking another sip of his drink. Then he paused, pursing his lips to one side and rubbing the nape of his neck. "...so what is your story anyway?"

Brow furrowing, I asked, "My story?"

He struck up a finger, "You're twenty-two. Fresh outta college. Guessing Ivy League no less just by the look of you, but total shot in the dark there. And you _just_ got your first job… in a mall food court. Which, ya know, absolutely nothing wrong with that, but it's the type of gig that only teens, university students, and college dropouts go for. Take it from me, a dropout twice over now, but back at it again for round three hoping it sticks this time," up the hand went again, now with index and middle digits crossed.

"Why didn't it the first couple times?" my head tipped to one side.

Who, me? Trying to take focus off myself? Deflecting? Psssh, I would _never!_

He splayed a hand out over his chest, "Believe it or not, I wasn't always the well-adjusted, level-headed and responsible individual that you see before you today."

"Really?" I snorted, squinting at him. "Is _that_ what I'm seeing before me? I hadn't realized."

"Shush, you. Trust me, six, seven years ago? I was a real punkass troublemaker. The kind of boy you don't bring home to your parents, all about the sex, drugs and rock-n-roll scene, ya know? That whole college thing sounded lame to me, but all my friends were doing it, so figured hell," he shrugged, "why not give it a shot? But me and college didn't really play well together. I didn't take it seriously, not really. So eventually decided it wasn't for me and kicked it to the curb. Few years later? Thought myself older, wiser, ready to give the big ol' four years and a diploma deal a second chance. But I was just fooling myself, I hadn't changed one bit. Wasn't long before we were parting ways once again."

I folded my arms on the table, "So what's changed? Why is try number three going to be different?"

Lea frowned up at the ceiling. "I guess you just hit a point in your life when you realize you don't want to be slinging pizza dough at minimum wage forever. Even a screwup like me's got dreams. Nothing too fancy... just maybe something like owning and operating my own place. Maybe a lil ice cream parlour by the beach, a real mom and pop kind of store.

"Ah, it's silly," he chuckled, shaking his head, "but either way, I know jackshit about running a business. And _that's_ why I'm back to hitting those books once again and this time I'm doing my damnedest to hammer some knowledge into this thick skull of mine," he pointed to his temple. "I've really buckled down and, uh…" his eyes darted away, "...shall we say, kicked some old habits."

"You sound like you really want to make it work this time." I propped one elbow next to the Shiva, leaning my cheek into my hand. "I haven't known you that long, but based on what I do know about you, I'm guessing there isn't much you can't do once you've really set your mind to it."

"Thanks!" he laughed. Then his smile turned a shade wry, "Don't think I didn't notice you trying to change the subject on me."

...fudge.

He went on, "You got my story, now I'd love to hear yours."

"I told you already," I frowned, my hands reaching for a napkin to start twisting between them. "My, er… my major didn't work out. This job… it's temporary and-"

Lea cut me off with a wave of his hand, "Yeah, yeah, I know what ya said. I'm more interested in what _wasn't_ said."

I grimaced, my fingers strangling the poor paper napkin harder. "It's… a long story."

"I got time. Loads of it. Only if you want to talk about it though. No pressure, it just looks like you need it."

Did I? What was that supposed to mean anyway? "...It's kind of personal. I'm not even sure if it's something I really _should_ be talking about."

His forehead wrinkled. "What, like it's a secret?" Then his face brightened. "I love a good secret! Okay, how about this. Let's do a trade. I'll give you one of my secrets, you give me one of yours. Could be anything, big or small, just whatever you want."

I blinked at him.

Apparently, he took that as a yes, for now he was hunching forward, bringing his face closer to mine and whispering, "So here's one that only one other person knows and only cuz he's known me since he and I were in diapers. Not even the kiddos are in on it. Okay, so, my first name?" He gave one more quick glance around to make sure the coast was clear before lowering his voice even further, "Not actually Lea."

My eyebrows knit together. "It's not?"

"Nope," he shook his head. "Middle name. Go by it cuz I hate my first name."

"Which is?"

His face pinched. "Axel."

"...Axel," I repeated flatly, one eyebrow arching.

"Yup. Apparently, my folks were total diehards for Guns n' Roses. But the real kicker? The couple o' useless junkies that gave me life were apparently too high off whatever drug o' the week they were on to even make sure the name was spelled right on the birth certificate. So instead of having a rockstar singer for a namesake, I'm named after a goddamn skateboard trick all thanks to one stupid E that wasn't s'posed to be there," he grumbled, throwing himself back into his seat and slumping down, crossing his arms.

I just stared at him for a second, silence stretching. Then I spluttered and burst out in laughter, trying to smother it behind my hands.

"Wow, rude much?" he deadpanned.

"I'm sorry, I really am! It's just, with the name and that whole story and your pout…" Oh gosh, that pout! I thought he was supposed to be twenty-five, not _five_. Still giggling but sobering somewhat, I continued, "I just couldn't help myself. I really am sorry though, I know I shouldn't have found it funny."

"Bah, it's fine," he brushed off with a grin. "I've had my whole life to get over it and yeah, it's a lil funny. But now it's your turn, Missy. Gimme a secret. Anything'll do. And don't worry, I'll be a lot nicer about it than _some_ insensitive clods at the table," he gave me a pointed look, smirk still in place to show he was only teasing.

Oh. Right. That. I'd almost forgotten. Though technically, I'd never agreed to anything. Then again, he did just kind of bare his soul to me. And I did just kind of ridicule him when he did. So maybe… in a way, I sort of owed it to him?

"I…" My voice wavered as I hesitated, hands mangling the napkin again. I gnawed my lower lip, looking down, hearing the thudding in my ribcage get louder. Finally, I squeezed my eyes shut and opened my mouth, not fully sure what was going to come out. "My parents… have no idea where I am right now. They haven't for a while."

His eyes widened slightly at that. Whatever he'd be expecting, apparently it hadn't been that.

Hey, same boat here, buddy.

"Oh… I see," was all he said at first, taking another slow pull from his drink now as he turned this new little tidbit over in his head.

And that wasn't even the half of it. I hadn't mentioned the type of family I was from. Or that'd I'd been in a relationship, no, _engaged_ with a fiancé. Or that'd I'd left him at the altar on my wedding day. Or that when I had, I'd made the split second decision to abandon the only existence I'd ever known and was now stumbling through life with absolutely zero clue as to what the frick I was actually doing.

...yeah, that would have been a lot. Perhaps a bit too much for sharing time. I think I'd made the right call with dropping only this one tiny piece of the puzzle. At least for now. And who knows? He seemed pretty perceptive, maybe it'd be enough for him to read between the lines and answer some of his questions about me. Then again, maybe not.

At last he leaned forwarded onto his elbows, one arm tucked behind the other, and said, "Alright, I'm gonna take a crack at this and you can let me know if I'm right. Or not. You don't even have to say jackshit, you can just let me blather on like the big lunkhead that I am who likes the sound of his own voice too much, which I'm used to so no worries, totally your call." He paused, steepling his fingers to his lips as he seemingly gathered his thoughts. Then, "Up 'til now, I'm guessing you've probably led a pretty sheltered life. One where you were maybe used to having all the decisions made for you. But then, for whatever reason or other, you recently decided to cut the cord. So now you find yourself out in the big, bad world that no one really prepared you for, scrambling to find a foothold, scared shitless and just trying to figure out what the hell to do with yourself, let alone with your future."

Holy… how on _earth_ did he…?

Swallowing hard, I fiddled with the straw in my cocktail and mumbled, "Wow, you _are_ good. Ever consider becoming one of those windup psychics in a box that spits out fortunes on little cards?"

He snorted. "Sure did, but was too dang tall to fit into the glass case. Too bad, those lil dudes have it made." Then he tilted his head. "...want some unsolicited advice?"

I shrugged, now absently stirring the blue liquid of my drink. "Sure, why not."

"Get out there. Explore. Try new things. Right now, I'm guessing your worldview is very small, so you need to expand it. It's the only way you'll figure out what to make of your life. Cuz as glamorous as it is, I suspect you're like me and don't exactly want to be working the food court all the way up into your golden years."

Now I looked up at him, a crease forming between my eyebrows. "...are you telling me to get out of my comfort zone?"

Lea chuckled, scratching his cheek, "Sure, I guess that'd be one of way of putting it."

"That's actually something I've been hearing a lot lately," I sighed, sinking further down into my seat. Sure, it sounded good in theory. But in practice? Easier said than done. "...any suggestions on where to start?"

He gave a low hum, rubbing a curled knuckle to his chin. Then his eyes lit up and he snapped his fingers. "Got just the thing! Be back in a jiff!" Then he sprung up to his feet, one hand on top the table to catapult himself over it and out the booth. As soon as his shoes hit the floor, he raced off, disappearing into the bar crowd.

...okay?

Should I be afraid? Yes, I think I should be afraid. Very, _very_ afraid.

My eyes squinted, scanning the crush of soberly-challenged people out there, searching for that distinctive fiery head of hair. Should have been easy given Lea was a living embodiment of Mount Fuji, but even so, I was having trouble spotting him.

A sudden blur darted out of the throng and landed hard on the cushion beside me, crashing into my side and distracting me from my hunt.

Said blur was Anna. Surprise, surprise.

"Whew!" she puffed out happily, sweating and fanning herself with one hand while the other crammed fries into her mouth. "That boy… Kristoff, was it? Man oh man, would _he_ be in trouble if I didn't already have a boyfriend!"

Both eyebrows shot up my forehead. "Boyfriend?" _That_ was news to me. "Since when?"

She froze mid-bite, shoulders stiffening and eyes going round. Then she snatched up her drink, slurping it down as her eyes shifted rapidly about. Then with a loud gulp, she at last let out a weak laugh, "It, uh… it's new! Yeah, we… met… at the wedding! Sorry I didn't tell you, I just didn't want to say anything because I, er… felt bad! With, ya know, your love life all in the toilet and the bombed engagement and whatnot, so… heh…"

"Oh," I averted my gaze with a tiny frown. At the wedding, huh? Was it someone from _his_ side of the family? Or maybe a friend of his? Regardless, it didn't really matter I supposed. I directed a soft smile her way, "I'm fine, really. There was no need for you to hold back. You know you can always tell me anything."

"I know that!" she laughed, flicking one hand dismissively. "But please, it's _me_. I have a new beau like every other week, so it's hardly anything to stop the presses over! No, the real scoop here is what's the deal with you and Lea? I wanna know _everything!_ "

"Lea?" I creased my brow, making another quick visual sweep for the guy in question. Still no dice, but I _did_ see Yuffie across the way playing a game of Darts with Meg and Terra. Though… could it still _really_ be called Darts when the projectiles being used were more of those little ninja stars? Either way, it came as little to no shock when next a scowling Leon could be glimpsed making a beeline for the trio. "What about Lea?"

"Don't play coy! I saw you two getting all cozy-like in this booth here all by yourselves just a minute ago!" her eyebrows waggled.

I scoffed. "There was nothing cozy about it. We were just talking."

"And smiling. Like, a _lot_."

"So? People smile when they talk."

Anna rolled her eyes. "Yeah, people. _You_ don't. Except for with me and Ray-Ray. Plus," and here she got in my face, jabbed a finger into my collarbone and paused with all the drama of Sherlock Holmes about to reveal the key piece of evidence at the climax of an epic murder mystery. "...you _laughed_."

Eyelids drooping, I grumbled, "I laugh all the time."

"Nu-uh! And not like this, you don't! Gawd, it's been… I don't even _know_ how long since I heard a noise like that out of you. You can't fool me, there's definitely something between you two. A… a spark!"

A half groan, half huff escaped me. Anna was always like this. She'd binged one too many romantic comedies in her as of yet short existence on this earth. I'd been considering telling her about the Kissident, but now? Bad idea. Like, in all the history of bad ideas, it would just be the absolute _worst_. She'd have a field day with that one. Better to keep it on the hush-hush for the time being. "There is no spark! There's not even a… a flicker! Or a glimmer! Or a glint! Not even a _fizzle_ , okay? We're just _friends_. Besides, I just broke up with a fiancé not even a month ago, so alleged sparks are the _furthest_ thing from my mind, understand?

"Methinks the lady doth protest too much," she slyly brought the Golden Chocobo back up to her lips.

Eyes narrowing dangerously, I cracked my knuckles, "Methinks if the little sister doth enjoy breathing, she'll knoweth when to zip it."

"Methinks the little sister is zipping it forthwith!" Anna chirped with a two finger salute. There was a lull as she plucked another fry to give it a nibble. Then, "Sis, can I just tell you how amazing this is?"

My head dipped to one side. "What is?"

"This!" Her arms spread out wide before bringing both hands in to gesture at me, "You! Being out in the real world! Making it on your own! Meeting new people! Having a job! All of it! You're different! It's a _good_ different! And this is just the start too, I can already see it, you're gonna do great things. I'm so proud of you," she cooed, pinching my cheek.

I swat her hand away, "Great things? Please, Anna… I scoop ice cream at a mall."

"Yeah, for now! But that alone was a _huge_ step for you. I mean, c'mon, if someone had told you a year ago that you'd be out from under Mom and Dad's tyrannical thumbs and doing the whole independent thing, you'd probably would've just thought that person was spouting crazy talk."

"I suppose that's true," I murmured, feeling the hint of a grin pulling at one side of my mouth. "I guess… I never knew what I was really capable of."

"Well, now you've had just the kick in the rear you needed to find out!" Her smirk then slowly faded into a tiny grimace. "Listen… I'm so sorry about what happened. If I'd known how unhappy you were, I _never_ would've let you get all the way up to the day of wedding bells before-"

"No, it's okay. You don't have to apologize," I shook my head, putting my hand on top of hers. "It wasn't your job to save me, it was mine. I just… should have done something about it sooner. Then maybe things wouldn't be the disaster zone I imagine they are now back at home," I puffed out a heavy sigh.

Anna laughed, "You got that right! Mom and Dad? Still hella pissed! So any thoughts on when you're gonna talk to them?" I winced, looking away. She hastily tacked on, "No rush or anything! And you don't have to worry about me spilling the beans to them either about where you're laying low! Take all the time you need. I just think-"

"Sorry to interrupt ladies!" We both jumped slightly in our seats as Lea made a sudden reappearance, skidding to a stop beside our table, eyes bright and ear-to-ear grin splitting his face in two. "But I'm gonna need to borrow El here for a minute!"

"Of course!" Anna giggled, standing up from the booth to clear a path out for me. "She's all yours!"

Um… excuse me?

Don't I get a say in this?

"Thank you!" he singsonged before snatching my hands in his and yanking me up out of the booth and onto my feet. "Come on, we're up next!"

Up? Up where?

He started to turn but stopped, tapping a finger to his pursed lips. Then the smile was back with a vengeance as he picked up the Shiva and shoved it into my hand. "Lil liquid courage never hurt!" he gave a firm nod before taking my other hand in his once again and sprinting off, me doing my best not to spill the drink as I stumbled and tripped after him.

I had a bad feeling about this.

"Where are we going?" I called out as we weaved a path through the crush of people, ignoring the soft, weird buzz I was feeling where my fingers were interlaced with his.

Not breaking stride, he turned his head just enough to glance at me out of the corner of his gaze, eyes crinkled. "You'll see."

My bad feeling now had an added side of gut-wrenching dread thrown in on the house.

Particularly because I was pretty sure we were heading straight for the-

" _Next up on the karaoke stage,_ " a female voice suddenly rang out over the speakers high above while the music coming from the jukebox faded away, " _we have Elsa and Lea here to sing a duet for us! Please welcome them with a round of applause, everyone!_ "

The room erupted in cheers and clapping as we at last broke out of the dense crowd to find ourselves directly in front of the stage.

Aka my worst nightmare.

Well… at least at the moment.

My nightmares had a tendency to pass around the highly coveted and sought after "Worst" title, depending on which one was most pressing at any given second of the day.

There wasn't that much to it. The stage was made of dark, polished hardwood with maroon, heavy velvet curtains hanging behind it to decorate the back wall. There were a couple of stands for the cordless mics accompanied by a lone barstool between them. And of course, the karaoke machine itself, front and center with a large screen on top of it for displaying the lyrics. As a whole, it was almost deceptively innocent looking in its simplicity.

But I knew better.

I'm on to you, you miniature torture chamber cleverly disguised as fun for the whole family.

"Surprise!" Lea beamed down at me. Then another tug at my arm and I was staggering to keep up once more as he brought me around to one side of the stage and up its stairs. I tried to put on the brakes, but my legs had turned to jelly, rendering them useless. Instead, it was all I could to stammer and splutter as he chipperly explained, "So as far as available songs go, it was slim pickings when it came to duets, nothing but cheesy love songs. But I think I picked the best one of the bunch, super energetic, should be loads of fun and-"

"No!" I at last managed to get out, jerking my hand free, whirling on my heel and marching back down those steps at warp speed.

He was quick to follow, grab me by my shoulders, spin me back around and guide me up again, still with that _stupid_ grin in place. "Aw, c'mon! You asked me for ideas on new things for you to try! So here you go!"

"Who says I haven't done this before?" I hissed, feet now scraping across the stage as he slid me along it.

Lea snerked through his nose. "I took a wild guess."

"That was awfully presumptuous of you."

"So what, you telling me you've sung karaoke?"

"No, but that doesn't make you any less presumptuous!"

We came to a stop now next to the mics. He stepped in front of me and bent down to my eye level, his hands still firmly gripping my upper arms to keep me from bolting. "Come on, El! Do it for me! As a favor to a friend!"

I shot him a deadpan look. "Fun fact: we're no longer friends."

"Since when?"

"Since ten seconds ago when you dragged me up here against my will."

"Pfft, you don't mean that," he finally released me, ruffling my bangs and rolling his eyes before stepping over to the mics, unblocking my field of vision. That's when I saw it.

All.

Those.

_People_.

Watching. Murmuring. Waiting. I'd already known the bar was packed, but now, up here, sensing every single last one of those eyes on me, the place seemed to be all but _bursting_. There were just… just so _many!_ I-

Wait, was the crowd shrinking? And not as is thinning out, but were the people actually getting... _smaller?_

"Oof!" I wheezed out a surprised grunt as my back collided with something.

Oh.

_That'd_ explain it.

Apparently without me even realizing it, my feet had taken it upon themselves to back me away from the edge of the stage, away from the people and straight into the curtained wall behind me. My hand started groping about, looking for the edge of said curtain, latching on when I found it and sweeping it out for me to hide behind. Everything went dark.

I am stealth.

A ghost.

A _ninja_.

Sneakiness personified.

Unseeable, unknowable, and-

The curtain whipped away and I winced as light returned, revealing Lea standing before me. He laughed, "There you are!"

I squeaked, grabbed the curtains and yanked them in front of me once more.

Now where was I? Ah, that's right… ahem! Unseeable, un-

The velvet curtain flew to the side once more and Lea hooked his hand in my elbow, pulling me out and back towards the karaoke machine. "Trust me, you'll be fine! You got nothing to worry about! I'll be there the whole time, hamming it up and just in general making a big idiot outta myself, so no one's even gonna be looking at you. All you gotta do is stand there and sing your parts when they come up, 'kay? Song's super short too, so it'll be over before ya know it!"

My lips parted to tell him _exactly_ where he could take his "super short song" and stick it, but was interrupted by the spotlights suddenly flicking on. One zeroed in on Lea, the other blasted me like a paralyzing ray and I just stood there, eyes wide and unblinking, mouth hanging open and alcoholic beverage still in hand.

Another wave of applause went up for us as Lea tossed me a mic. Frozen stiff, I made no move to catch it, instead just watching it dumbly as it arced up through the air before streaking straight down in front of me to clatter against the stage. He snorted, bent down to pick it up and put it in my free hand, pressing my numb fingers to close around it before he moved to stand in front of the other mic.

My breathing was shallow, my heart was a jackhammer and my feet no longer seemed to work, now just glued to this spot.

Oh god, was this really happening?

That's when the music started.

Apparently, yes. Yes it was.

The tune was led in by a quirky, rubbery bassline and a playful piano. Wait… I knew this song. Yeah, it was from a musical. The one full of leather jackets, summer lovin' and grease lightning. Musicals were a good thing. Musicals were a thing I knew. Kind of a guilty pleasure of mine. Used to sing along with them all when I was little. It could actually be considered kind of pathetic, the sheer percentage of my brain that was still to this day crammed full of all the words to famous Broadway hits.

All that said though… it did absolute friggin' _zilch_ to calm me down.

" _I got chills, they're multiplying,"_ Lea started off, dipping his mic stand dangerously low and giving it a wide sweep around before straightening back up and removing the mic from the base. He was no Travolta, but his voice actually wasn't half bad. _"And I'm losing control,"_ he sang on, spinning on one foot once, twice, three times before abruptly stopping to point at me with a smirk, working some hip action. _"Cuz the power you're supplying… it's electrifying!"_ His whole body spasmed from head to toe as he fell to his knees then full on faceplanted at my feet, causing me to jolt back a step.

...hamming it up? Please, more like going whole hog! Jeez!

My part was coming up in about five seconds. I could hardly hear the music anymore over the thundering of my heart or the hiss of breath hyperventilating in and out of my nose. That's when it happened again.

Everyone and everything around me was suddenly in slo-mo.

Man, I really needed to get a handle over my powers of time control!

It was in this uncanny second of my wildly burgeoning mutant ability (ha, if only) that I spotted them. Rayne and Anna, in the front row of the crowd with big smiles to root me on. As I locked eyes with one then the other, my sister gave me an excited nod of encouragement while my roommate was mouthing something to me. Couldn't be sure, but it looked suspiciously like the words 'comfort zone.'

Then I looked down at my hand holding the Shiva.

...liquid courage, huh?

...fine. Let's do this.

Nostrils flaring, I raised the drink to my mouth, knocking back several gulps before slamming the glass down on top of the barstool. Still shaking, I jerked the mic up to my lips, knuckles white around the handle. Like a dam bursting, the words started flooding out before I could even think them. _"You better shape up,"_ oh gosh, was that a quiver I heard in my voice? My free hand down by my hip clenched tightly. _"Cuz I need a man, and my heart is set on you."_

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Lea still flat on the floor but now propped up on his elbows and _gawking_ at me. I looked away, heat flooding my face. Come on now, I know it'd been a while since I last sang so I was rusty, but I couldn't be _that_ bad. Stubbornness flaring, I took a deep breath and continued, words stronger now, _"You better shape up! You better understand to my heart I must be true…"_

" _Nothing left, nothing left for me to do,"_ Lea came back in with a fierce grin as he scrambled up onto his feet. _"You're the one that I want!"_ we both sang the chorus as he landed to my right, doing the iconic dance from the scene in the movie, with a thumb hooked in the waist of his pants and swinging his hips to and fro. _"Oo-oo-oo, honey, the one that I want!"_ In a shuffling side-gallop, he passed by in front of me to my other side and repeated the move. _"Oo-oo-oo, honey, the one that I want!"_ Again with the side-gallop, this time behind me, and again with the little jig. I was biting back a smile. Well, at least he was true to his word… he really _was_ making a big idiot out of himself. It was getting harder to stay mad at him. Harder… but not impossible. _"Oo-oo-oo, the one I need, oh yes indeed!"_

Lea now moved several steps over to his side of the stage, giving me room as the song shifted in preparation for the second verse that I was going to be starting off. I tensed, spine ramrod straight as I recalled what the next lines out of my mouth were going to be. Feeling my blush creeping all the way down to my toes, I wrung the mic in both my hands now as I stiffly brought it back up and squeezed my eyes shut. _"If you're feeling affection,"_ I wasn't here, I wasn't me, _"you're too shy to convey."_ No, I was Olivia Newton-John at the school carnival, oozing confidence in a smoking, skin-tight outfit showing off her killer bod. _"Meditate in my direction."_ Oof, the next part. How did Olivia pull off that breathy purr? Maybe something like, _"Feel your way."_

Harsh feedback screeched through the speakers, making my eyes snap back open. Apparently it had come from Lea's mic, which he was clumsily fumbling to keep from dropping it. Now having it firmly back in grip, he brought it back up in time to croak out, _"I better shape up!"_ He cleared his throat, banging a fist to his chest and now looking a little red in the face. I guess all that prancing around must have been catching up to him. _"Cuz you need a man…"_

" _I need a man who can keep me satisfied,"_ I sang back, quirking an eyebrow at him.

Whatever his malfunction had been, he was now bouncing back, face brightening as he ran into a knee-slide, stretching a hand up towards me, _"I better shape up if I'm gonna prove-"_

" _You better prove,"_ I rolled my eyes and shook my head at his antics, _"that my faith is justified."_

" _Are you sure?"_ he asked, hopping back up before my voice joined with his, _"Yes, I'm sure deep down inside! You're the one that I want!"_ The chorus started again and Lea grabbed my hand, catching me off guard and twirling me into a spin. _"Oo-oo-oo, honey, the one that I want!"_ Now he pulled me up against him, flashing me a cheeky grin as one hand wrapped around my waist and the other took hold of mine, mic sandwiched between them. _"Oo-oo-oo, honey, the one that I want!"_ Unable to resist any longer, a laugh bubbled out of me as he swept us around in circles in time with the upbeat music, bringing his mic up between our lips whenever we needed to sing the next line. _"Oo-oo-oo, the one I need, oh yes indeed!"_

The chorus repeated a couple more times, Lea continuing to dance us about the stage the whole time. Once when I was able to catch a glimpse out into the audience, I even spotted Rayne and Anna busting a move themselves on top of one of the tables, Riku on the ground frantically gesturing for his wife to get down. When the song finally started to fade, the room erupted in applause and whistles. Lea released my waist, but didn't let go of my hand, instead tugging me towards the edge of the stage. There he raised my arm up high before he bent into a flourishing bow for the adoring fans, pulling me down into one as well. As we both straightened back up, a smile tugged at my lips and I breathed a sigh of relief as my heart rate finally began to calm down.

I'd done it. I'd actually _sung_ in front of all those people and lived to tell the tale. And oddly, I was even... almost kind of giddy about it? It couldn't be that I'd _actually_ enjoyed that? No. No way. That was just the adrenaline talking as it still coursed through my body which was finally getting to relax now that the danger had passed. I was just happy it was over with! Yeah, that's all it was. It _had_ to be.

As the bar quieted down once more, Lea returned the mics to their holders before jumping down off the front of the stage and pivoting around to smirk up at me, "Damn, El, why didn't you tell me you were packing a gorgeous set o' pipes on you?"

There that blush was again, creeping back up my neck. I gave a soft harrumph, "Stop, I do n-"

I was startled into silence as he picked me up by the waist, my hands hastily going to his shoulders as he lowered me down off the stage and deposited me on the floor beside him.

Okay… so _that_ happened.

"I'm serious!" he pulled his hands back, planting them on his own hips as he hunched forward slightly. "You're trying to figure out what to do with your life, right? Well, I think we hit a ringer here! Ever consider being a singer?"

I turned my back on him with a snort and walked away, heading towards our booth. "Oh, sure. I'll just have to hire professional wranglers to drag me kicking and screaming up to the mic for every performance."

"Oh, c'mon, it wasn't that bad, was it?" he caught up and fell into step beside me. "You had fun and really got into it, I could tell!"

Only because Lea had been distracting me the whole time. "It doesn't matter either way, only fools try to make a career out of singing. Do you know how hard it is for most people to make it big in the music industry?"

"Yeah, but most people don't have a voice like yours."

I groaned, "Please, can we just drop it?"

"Fine, fine, dropping it," he raised his hands in surrender. Then, "So… are we friends again?"

I side-eyed him, wrinkling my nose. "...probationally."

One corner of his mouth twitched upward and he slipped his hands into his pockets. "I'll take it! And hey, at least something good came outta our lil musical adventure."

I gave him a questioning look, to which he grinned wider.

"I got to dance with you after all."

* * *

_**Author's Note:** _ _For those who don't know it, the song they sang is called "You're the One That I Want" from the musical "Grease" - a rather problematic musical at that (as I discovered from rewatching the movie while writing this chapter after not having seen the movie in over a decade) but I still love this song and you can pry it from my cold, dead hands xD I don't normally write songs lyric for lyric in my stories, but I just figured with what an anxious bundle of nerves Elsa is in this story, it was kind of important not to just gloss over and hand-wavy the karaoke. Anyhoo, moving on! For those of you who haven't read my other stories and thus don't know this already, I forgot to mention it a couple chapters ago when Elsa's family name first popped up, but "Fryse" is Norwegian for "Freeze" - yeah, I got a lil punny with it, ignore me and my silly lil pleasures xD_

_Thank you so much for reading, especially to those of you who have shared with me your feelings on this story so far! If you have any friendly feedback, I would really appreciate hearing it!_


	11. Chapter 11

"Please, Ray, think of the child!"

"I am! Cuz this is my last few months of freedom!"

It was getting late and things were winding down now in 7th Heaven. Most of the gang from the mall had already split and there were just a few stragglers left. It may have come as a shock to find me among them. Or maybe not, given Anna and I were carpooling and my little sister had never, _ever_ been one to call it an early night.

Rayne apparently wasn't ready for the party to be over yet either. Much to Riku's dismay, she had climbed up onto a table for what was probably now the sixth time tonight and was rocking her best dancing queen moves. I snorted as I watched her work it, always managing to boogie-dodge out of the way whenever Riku would make a desperate grab for her ankles. I was almost surprised Anna wasn't up there cutting the proverbial rug with her right now like she had been earlier.

"Trying to wrangle the wife so you two can head out for the night?" I asked, stepping up beside Riku.

His shoulders slumped as he released a long suffering sigh, "Yeah, if only she'd stand _still_ long enough." Once again his hand swiped out and once again she evaded him with ease as she razzed her tongue at him before spinning around to shake her munny-maker in his general direction. "Now she's just taunting me," he grumbled.

I brought a hand up to hide my grin. "Need help?"

"Nah, I got it." He glanced at me out of the corner of his eyes. "You catching a ride home with us tonight?"

"No thanks," I shook my head. "Anna is more alcohol than person at this point. She has no business being behind a wheel, so she's going to need me to drive her. Will it be okay if she sleeps on your couch?"

He nodded, "Fine by me. Sure you yourself are good to drive?"

I cocked an eyebrow at him. "If you're referring to that one sip I had on the karaoke stage, that was hours ago. Trust me, I'm good." Looking around, I then asked, "Any idea where Anna may have gotten off to?"

"Haven't seen her for a while now, but I'm sure she'll turn up. Maybe check with-"

"Catch me!"

Eyes going round, Riku hastily threw his arms out just in time for Rayne to land in them princess-style. Giggling, she wrapped her arms around his neck and planted a loud smooch on his cheek. He gave an amused huff through his nose, muttering, "Woman, you're gonna be the death of me."

"And you'll love every minute of it, my knight in shining armor," she cooed, hugging him tighter and nuzzling her face into his neck.

He snerked, closing his eyes. "You're right. Probably need my head examined."

I felt a tug at one corner of my mouth. "Looks like you have your hands full with this one, Riku. Good luck."

"Eh, it's just this place. She'll be all sobered up by the time we're on the road. Speaking of which, we should probably get going." Still carrying her, he started to turn to leave but then stopped and peered back at me with a smile. "Oh, and Elsa? Great job at the mic tonight. You were amazing."

I blinked, then looked down with a weak chuckle. "No, not really."

He gave my leg a friendly nudge with his shoe, seeing as how his hands were otherwise occupied. "Yes, really. Anyway, see you back at home."

"Hi-ho Silver, away!" Rayne cried, jabbing a finger out and kicking up a leg.

"If you're expecting me to gallop and whinny, sorry, not happening," Riku said flatly as he started making his way towards the door.

"Aw, please?" she dragged out the word and I could all but hear the pout in her voice.

I hummed a soft laugh as I watched them go. I'd said it before and I'll say it again… they really were so sweet. It was hard not to envy them and what they had, the relationship and life they'd built together. I wondered if I could ever have anything like that with someone. I mean, I'd had my chance with my ex and had blown it. I'd never felt anything even remotely like that for him in the years we'd been together. Could I if the right person came along? Or was I just…

...not built that way?

In any case, this wasn't the time to be thinking about such things. Romance was the least of my worries at the moment. What with having made the wholly unwise and completely spur of the moment decision to turn my entire life utterly upside down, there were much more pressing matters to deal with.

Not the least of which was locating one rambunctious and currently quite heavily sauced little sister.

Now where to even start looking? Hmmm… pretty sure I'd seen her last holed up in one of the booths with Xion, heads hunched together, whispering and cackling about something. What exactly? Not entirely sure. Part of me had been a little too afraid to find out. Either way, checking in with Xion would probably be my best bet. I knew she'd been making the rounds and saying good night to everyone, but I didn't think she'd left just yet.

It took a few minutes as the bar was still pretty jam packed, but I finally caught sight of her over by the arcade machines chatting with Olette and Hayner. She waved goodbye to the other two before turning and spotting me as I approached. "Oh hiya!" she smiled broadly. "Glad you decided to join us tonight, hope you had fun!"

I smiled back, "I did, thanks." And I wasn't just being polite. Oddly enough, I actually meant it. "So hey, any clue where Anna might be?"

She pursed her lips to one side, giving a low hum before at last shaking her head. "Nope! Sorry. She and I were hanging out a bit ago, but then she ran off. Haven't seen her since. Why don't you try calling her? You're still phoneless, right?" She dug hers out of one of her pockets. "Here, use mine."

I took it from her and almost dropped it when it immediately started vibrating against my palm. The screen lit up with Anna's name and a photo selfie of her next to Xion in one of the booths here, both posing with duck face and white girl gangsta hand gestures. Speak of the devil. Apparently, the phone was receiving an incoming call from my sister. I arched an eyebrow up at Xion, to which she just laughed, "Oh yeah, we exchanged numbers. Perfect timing, huh?"

Perfecting timing indeed.

Shrugging it off, I pressed the green button and brought the device up to my ear, "Anna?"

A loud dramatic gasp came through from the other end, _"Xi-Xi! Has anyone ever told you that you sound_ exactly _like my sister?"_

My eyelids drooped. "This _is_ your sister."

Another gasp. _"Sis! Has anyone ever told you that you sound_ exactly _like Xi-Xi doing a spot on impression of you?"_

"You'd be the first," I rolled my eyes, squinting as I took another quick glance around the pub. "Where are you? We should probably get going."

" _But I am going!"_ her voice slurred through the speaker. _"I'm already loooooong gone, baby, woo!"_

"Oh, no doubt about that," I snerked. Xion pointed over to Meg and Tiana, indicating she wanted to catch them before they left and I nodded as she walked off. "But no, I mean going as in driving. You know, like in a car? Beep beep, vroom vroom?"

She huffed, _"But that's what I'm saying! I_ am _in a car with all the beep beeps and vroom vrooms!"_

My eyebrows knit together. "You are? With who?"

" _Ray-Ray and Ri-Ri of course!"_ she chirped.

Anna was oh so clever and original at coming up with nicknames, if you hadn't guessed by this point. "What? But I told Riku I'd be driving you. Like, not even five minutes ago."

" _Yeah, I caught them as they were leaving and Ri-Ri said something about that, but told him I figured I'd just snag a ride with them cuz you decided to stay a tad longer to hang out with yo peeps!"_

"Oh I did, did I?" I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Funny, I don't remember saying anything like that."

" _Well, no, not in so many words, but I knew. I could tell. Sisterly intu… intu-ish-ish, uh…"_ she sluggishly stumbled over the word for a bit before instead settling on, _"I'm psychic!"_

"I see. Fine then, oh great and powerful reader of minds, what am I thinking about right this second?"

There was a pause. Then, _"You're thinking… no,_ wondering _… how… glue doesn't stick to the inside of its own bottle?"_

"No." Well… yes actually, since she'd brought it up, _now_ I was. But Anna didn't need to know that! "I'm wondering where the keys to your car are."

" _Oh!"_ Another pause, then some shuffling noises followed by a loud jangle. _"Right here!"_

I frowned, heaving a sigh through my nose. "Perfect. So then tell me, Anna, because I'd really love to know… how am I supposed to get home?"

" _Easy peasy lemon squeezy! Just ask someone there to take ya. Oh oh, ask Xi-Xi! Besides, you shouldn't be driving anyway, ya boozehound!"_

"Oh my god, it was just one sip!" I facepalmed. "Look, can you just put Riku on the phone? You guys can't have driven that far yet, I'm sure he won't mind turning around. Besides, we shouldn't just leave your car here overnight."

She scoffed, _"It'll be fine, I can get it in the morning!"_

"Anna, please, can you just hand the phone to-"

" _What was that?"_ she asked before making a loud, crackly hiss through her teeth in a super obvious and super fake attempt at static noises. _"Sis? You're breaking up! I'm going through a tunnel, I can't-"_ More hissing followed by a long beep, presumably Anna pressing down on what she thought was the 'End Call' button. It wasn't. _"...hehehe, all according to plan."_

"You know I'm still here and can still hear you, right?" I deadpanned.

" _Gah!"_ Another beep and the line actually went dead this time.

I pulled the phone away from my ear to narrow my eyes down at it.

What were you up to, brat?

"So!" Xion beamed as she abruptly popped back up in front of me, making me jump as my hand flew up to my chest. "Looks like you're hitching a ride with me!"

My brow furrowed, "How did you-?"

"We better hit the road then!" she took her phone back as she slung her other arm around my shoulders, making me stagger into a walk beside her as she directed us towards the exit. "I gave the boys my keys so they could let themselves into the car, so they should already be all buckled in and good to go!"

Okay, something was beyond fishy here.

I started reaching towards her hand to remove it, "Thank you, but this isn't necessary. Could I just maybe borrow your phone again and try Riku's or Rayne's numbers directly? I don't want to be any trouble, really."

"Nonsense!" She swatted my hand away before barreling us through the door and out into the night. "No trouble at all! I'm only too happy to drive you. Besides, with all that testosterone swimming in giggle juice stuffed into one teeny-tiny car, I'm grateful for another sane female presence. Trust me, you're doing me a favor!"

As we made our way down the steps and into the parking lot, I tried again, "But-"

"Arr, avast ye scallywags!" Roxas suddenly jumped out in front of us from between two cars, earning a yelp from the both of us. He drunkenly wobbled into a battle stance, brandishing a broken tree branch in our faces. "Surrender yer booty or taste the cold steel of my blade, yar!"

Xion fixed him with a dull stare and crossed her arms. "Roxas, that's a stick."

"Wha?" Blinking groggily at his makeshift weapon a couple times, he then shouted, "Think fast!" He chucked it, missing us by miles and instead hitting some random car, setting off its alarm. Then he sniggered and spun around to make a break for it, only to trip over his own two feet and hit the asphalt hard. He hiccuped before calling out a weak, "I'm okay!" Scrambling to his feet once more, he managed to stumble across Xion's Prius a few vehicles down and dive (well… more like _fall_ ) head first through one of the backseat windows, shoes flailing about wildly in the air for a few seconds before getting pulled inside with the rest of him.

Her lips flapped as she puffed out a breath. "Ugh, Rox is such a lightweight. At least Lea knows how to hold his hooch a little better. But see? See what I have to put up with?" She pressed her palms together and held them up under her chin, "Please, _please_ just let me give you a ride home so you can keep those baboons from driving me bonkers."

My lips pressed into a thin line. "...oh, alright." Then I scraped together a small smile, "Thanks."

"Yes!" she pumped her fist before she resumed walking and I reluctantly followed. "And don't mention it!"

As I gave her my address to put in her phone for directions, we walked around behind her car and I looked longingly at Anna's Porsche, just one space over. So close, I could reach out and touch it. Ugh. Besides not being able to quite shake the feeling that I was wandering headlong into a carefully laid trap courtesy of Anna and I was beginning to strongly suspect Xion too, I'd just plain had enough of being around people for one night. My social battery was depleted and in serious need of recharging, so even something so simple as a car ride with others sounded like a lot.

Hmm... wonder what my chances of success would be if I tried to break in and hotwire Anna's car?

Probably not the best considering when it came to grand theft auto, I didn't have the foggiest of where to even begin. But hey, someone had to be the first to figure out how to start up a car sans keys. And that person wouldn't have even had Youtube tutorial videos to help them through the whole process, so who knew, maybe I had a shot.

Meh. I should just suck it up and go with Xion. Ten more minutes of human interaction wasn't going to kill me.

...famous last words.

Xion opened the door to the backseat and held out her hand to whoever was seated inside, curling and uncurling her fingers a couple times. "Keys."

Another hand stretched out from within the car, dropping the requested item into her awaiting palm with a muted _clink_. As the arm was pulled back inside, it was replaced by a fiery head of hair poking out to quirk an eyebrow back at me. "El?" Lea called out. "What're you doing here?"

Xion stepped aside so I could walk up, coming to a stop between the open door and where he was buckled in in the back. With a tiny, awkward laugh, I said, "It, uh… looks like I'll be catching a ride with you guys tonight."

"Oh?" he smiled up at me, but then it quickly faded. "But there's not really space…"

"There's not?" I frowned, bowing down a bit to get a better look into the car. Sitting next to Lea were two Roxases. Or rather… I guess one was his brother… Ventus, was it? I didn't know them well enough yet to tell which was which. Drat, I couldn't even remember what Roxas had been wearing thirty seconds ago when he'd tried to hold us up at stick-point. And neither one was in their work clothes, so I didn't even have that as a clue. As for the front passenger spot, that was already occupied as well. Naminé had twisted around her seat there to give me a wave with a warm grin.

"Oopsie," Xion singsonged behind me a touch too innocently, "looks like I miscalculated available car space!"

I turned to squint suspiciously at her. "You told me you needed another," here I used finger quotes, "sane female presence in the car with you."

"Yeah, _another_. Never said anything about you being the only one."

My gaze shot skyward as I released a soft huff. "Well… thanks anyway, but looks like I'll be needing Riku to come back for me after all. Could someone lend me their phone please?"

"Nah, it's fine, don't make him drive all the way here again," Lea batted a hand and started reaching for his seatbelt. "El, take my seat, I'll just walk back to my place, it's not _that_ far."

"Please, I'm not letting you walk your drunk ass home in the middle of the night," Xion said sternly.

"Yeah, we'll just stuff your drunk ass into the trunk instead!" Roxas (or was it Ventus?) cackled beside him.

He snorted, "Like I'd even fit in there. If _anyone's_ going in the trunk, it's Nams. She's the smallest."

She blinked back at the boys before tapping a finger to her chin, "Well, I guess if it'll make everything easier…"

"No one's going in the trunk, Nams, he was joking," Xion rolled her eyes.

I decided to try again, "Now about that phone?"

"Worry not! We can make this work," Xion smirked and I didn't like that sudden gleam in her eye. "It'll just get a lil cozy, but that's okay. We're all friends here, right? Right." And with that, her hands shot forward, shoving me into a backward stumble.

And straight into Lea's lap.

I felt his whole body jerk and tense beneath mine. As my brain was still trying to catch up and process what exactly it was that had just happened, Xion cooed all sugary sweet like, "Watch your toesies there," lightly kicking my feet in along with the rest of me before slamming the car door shut.

"Xion!" Lea yelled, grabbing the door handle and yanking on it several times, but it remained shut tight. "This isn't funny! Open the door!" She just brought her face down to the window, sticking her tongue out as she waggled her fingers at him before skipping off around to the other side of the car. He banged his fist against the window glass, "Damn it!"

Oh no…

Oh.

_No._

"W-what's wrong with the door?" I asked, my breathing growing rapid as I pulled on the handle a few times myself, but still it didn't budge. "Is it stuck?"

Lea flopped his head back against the headrest, raking his fingers through his hair as he grumbled, "Child lock."

"Yup!" piped Xion as she plopped down into the driver's seat, buckling herself in. "Rox here has tried one too many times now to jump outta a moving vehicle while plastered."

"Keep telling ya, I'll be _fine!_ " the one next to the other backseat window snapped. Guess that'd make him Roxas.

She snorted, turning the key in the ignition. "For the last time, _no_ , you won't. Being three sheets to the wind doesn't make you as invulnerable as you seem to think it does, sorry bud."

I barely heard a word that was being said, heart thudding loudly now as my fingers frantically and repeatedly pressed the window button. I was not above climbing out that way to escape! However, the window remained firmly closed and I heard the one opposite of us rolling up as well.

I caught Naminé casting me a look of concern through the rearview mirror before she glanced at Xion, "Um… maybe this isn't really the best id-"

"Shush, it'll be fine!" Xion brushed her off before backing the car out of the parking space. "And we're off!"

Oh god, oh god, oh _god_ , this was really happening. I rigidly sat as far forward on his legs as I could, self-consciously tugging at the hem of my mini skirt. I _still_ hadn't purchased any tights to wear under them, so there was also _that_.

Worst.

Work attire.

_Ever_.

I stopped fussing with it, instead concentrating on sitting as still as humanly possible, planting my elbows on my knees and clasping my hands over my nose, mouth, and searing cheeks.

Breathe. Breathe. Okay, Elsa, calm down. This isn't another person you're sitting on. It's a _chair_. Just… just a chair…

A very warm, firm, shifting, breathing, distressingly person-shaped chair.

Yeah, no, that wasn't helping.

My eyes screwed tightly shut.

Alright, okay, try this instead! Just picture like you're a child again, sitting on Santa's lap and telling him what you want for Christmas!

...except I'd always been terrified of Santa Claus as a kid and had screamed bloody murder until they'd take me away from him.

Ugh, this wasn't working! Were we there yet? Was it almost over? Please, oh please let us almost be back to the apartment!

I peeked one eye open and...

We weren't. In fact, we'd just barely left the parking lot and were waiting at a light. Out of my peripheral, I saw Lea's hands hovering about awkwardly, clearly not sure what to do with them. At last, he settled on one grabbing the edge of the seat to the left of his knees while the other fumbled about against the door, the window, the ceiling, basically trying to be anywhere but on me.

This was awful. One could all but choke on the sheer amount of awkward, it was so palpable. This was one hundred and ten percent the type of situation I would usually nopety-nope the hell out of faster than you could say 'panic attack'. But I couldn't! I was trapped! No way out!

Except… hold up, maybe there _was_ one way out… it was a long shot, but...

Squeezing my eyes shut once again, I clicked my heels together three times.

There's no place like home, there's no place like home…

I peeked one eye open.

Fudge, still here.

Maybe it'd help if I actually had ruby slippers.

Stupid, useless, non-magical, suede ankle boots.

"I'm really sorry about this," I heard Lea mumble behind me.

I twitched, then quickly shook my head, "Don't be, it's not-"

"Sweet! Light's green!" Xion whooped before slamming the pedal to the metal.

The car leapt forward, knocking me into a backward slide along Lea's lap, my back thumping against his chest. I heard him suck in a sharp breath and groan softly, his hand on the seat cushion gripping harder. I stammered, "S-sorry, did I hurt you?"

Voice somewhat strained, he said, "No, not at all, it's, er… hm, it's nothing. Don't worry about it." His breath tickled against my neck and shoulder, making me shiver and my blush burn hotter. It was a wonder my whole body wasn't glowing in the dark at this point. "Your, ah… your hair… may I ask the, um… the scent?"

Oh gosh, he must have gotten a face full of ponytail when I had been thrown up against him just now. "Snowberry? I believe is the, erm… the flavor of shampoo." I winced. "Not flavor! D-don't know why I said that, I don't know what it tastes like! Not like I go around eating shampoo, who would do that? Crazy people, that's who! I'm perfectly normal and eat normal things like-" Ugh, stop rambling! You may not eat shampoo, but you're definitely sounding like a crazy person right now! "Nevermind. Anyway, sorry… I know it- the shampoo that is... that the smell tends to be a bit strong."

"No, no, it's, uh…" he cleared his throat, "... it's nice. Very-"

There was a loud _thud_ that jolted the whole car, making me bounce in his lap, much to my utter horror. I heard a tiny whimper from Lea as his knuckles started turning white.

"Sorry," Xion laughed, "pothole!"

Oh, Xion. Dear, sweet Xion… what did I ever do to you to deserve all this? Did I mess up one of your ice cream orders? Give you a sugar cone when you had wanted waffle? Or only two scoops when you had asked for three? Served you a Sea Salt that was an insultingly subpar shade of blue?

And Anna… oh-ho, trust me, this little stunt had that hellion's name written all over it, no doubt about that. I don't know what she was even trying to accomplish here, but when I got my hands on her… sorry, Mother, Father, but your littlest would be coming home to you in a friggin' _body bag_.

"So Lea," Ventus elbowed him in the arm abruptly, "I feel like you and I don't get to talk much, like, ever. Figure now's a good a time as any to fix that. So tell me, buddy, cuz I really wanna know…" his lips curled wickedly as he leaned in closer to him, eyebrows waggling, "...what's _up?_ "

Lea shoved him away and into Roxas, who snickered, "Ooo, sore subject, I take it? Don't worry about it, big guy. Too much booze can do that to man and-"

A second, more forceful shove from Lea, this time knocking the twins' heads together with a satisfying _smack_ as he snarled, "If you two twerps don't cram it, I'm gonna-"

"Oopsie, stop sign!" Xion announced brightly, stomping down on the brakes hard.

As the tires squealed to a stop, I flew forward, but was saved by Lea's arm instinctively latching around my waist. He breathed a sigh of relief, but then his muscles stiffened. "S-sorry," he hastily removed his hand from my hip… only to rest it on my bare thigh instead. Instantly realizing his mistake, another louder, more panicked, "Sorry!" as he jerked the hand away, electing to jam it under his leg instead.

One had to wonder what the boiling point of human was, because at the rate my head-to-toe blush was going, I had to be fast approaching it.

"Onward!" Xion cheerfully boomed, flooring it once more, flinging me back and starting the whole cycle anew.

The rest of the trip probably lasted only a grand total of five more minutes. However, it felt like five _centuries_ , with a decade tacked on for every sudden acceleration, sharp turn or jerky stop. I swear Xion was purposely seeking out every last dang bump and ditch in the stupid road. I never even realized there were so many! If I hadn't known any better, I'd have suspected her of doubling back to hit some of them twice.

Finally, after what seemed like an absolute gut-wrenching eternity, she mercifully sang out a chipper, "Here we are!" as we pulled into the parking lot for my apartment complex.

Oh thank goodness!

As we came to what had to be the smoothest stop the whole ride, I was already tugging on the door handle restlessly, impatient for Xion to release the infernal child lock. "Alright, alright, hold your horses," she snerked, taking her sweet time to tap a button on her armrest. There was a click beside me and with one final pull of the handle, the car door popped open. In the blink of an eye, I was _gone_.

Road Runner, eat your heart out.

"Elsa, wait!" Lea called out behind me.

I was feeling so humiliated, so mortified, so wanting to be _anywhere_ but here in that exact second that nothing could have stopped me. Not hell or high water. Not the zombie apocalypse. Not an alien invasion. Not the inevitable heat death of the universe snuffing out all life and existence as we know it everywhere. _Nothing_.

Well… almost nothing.

Turns out the one thing that could stop me was a clattering sound, followed by a, " _Motherfu-_ " then a heavy tumbling _thud_ accompanied by a pained grunt, all topped off at the end with a tiny, almost inaudible "Ow."

I froze a mere few inches short of the building entrance, my hand already reaching for the door - aka my ticket out of this nightmare - and haltingly glanced back over my shoulder. There Lea was, halfway out the car, back sprawled flat against the pavement, eyes squeezed shut in a grimace, feet still up inside the vehicle where they'd somehow gotten all tangled in the seatbelt.

...this… dork…

Despite every fiber of my being still telling me to run, something in me found the will to resist. Instead I turned and slowly, reluctantly walked back, coming to a stop beside him and squatting down, knees together and arms folded over them. "...you okay?"

His eyes snapped open and he blinked up at me a couple times, surprised to see me there. Then he scrabbled to get up, failed miserably due to the seatbelt predicament and instead just ended up flopping about like a hooked fish. Finally, feet still up above his head, he just settled for rolling over onto one side, propping himself up on an elbow while the other hand went to his head with a soft hiss. "Yeah, nothing bruised 'sides my ego." He paused, peeking at me out of the corner of his eye. "...are we?"

I stared blankly at him, slightly tipping my head to one side.

"Okay, that is," he elaborated. "Please believe me, I had _nothing_ to do with this, had zero clue what the, erm… seating arrangements were gonna be." I looked away, feeling a now all too familiar warmth creeping back into my face as the corner of my lips pulled down. He was quick to add, "And make no mistake, the culprit will not go unpunished. Heads will roll. There will be repercussions, young lady!" he directed the last threat in a yell back towards the car.

"You're not my real dad!" Xion shouted back and it was followed by a chorus of giggles from the rest of Prius's occupants.

Lea hung his head and heaved a sigh. "I swear, I get no respect."

I shifted one arm to prop my chin in my palm, fingers hiding a growing grin despite myself. I nodded, "...yeah. You and I... we're okay." I then turned my head to shoot a small glare back towards my apartment building, "I can't say the same though for my own little troublemaker. Yours didn't act alone and had an accomplice, one who'll soon be reaping the excruciating consequences of her actions."

"I pity anyone fool enough to provoke your wrath," he chuckled.

"Trust me, I know how to bring the pain. She will rue the day."

"Oh, I have no doubt about that." There was a _thunk_ as one of Lea's feet suddenly fell free. It seemed Naminé, feeling sorry for the big lug, had sat up on her knees and flipped around, leaning over the back of her seat so she could disentwine his ankles from the impromptu snare. With one down, her fingers set to work on unwinding the other one. "Thanks Nams! Looks like I have a new bestie, cuz my current ones suck and/or are not long for this world."

The car's engine revved and abruptly rolled forward a few feet, dragging Lea with it. "Xion!" he snapped and the wheels screeched to a stop.

"Ven did it!" Xion blurted out, voice bubbling with laughter.

"Wha- Did _not!_ "

"Don't lie, I saw you," an identical voice could be heard, tone colored by a smirk.

" _You're_ the liar, Rox!"

Again, the Prius started to inch forward. Reacting on impulse, my hands darted out and latched onto Lea's wrists. That combined with a now distraught Naminé working feverishly to finish untangling the seatbelt finally had his other leg pulling loose. He was fast to hop up to his feet and as I straightened up to join him, he scratched the back of his head with a sheepish smile. "Heh, thanks! Now if you'll excuse me, I have a couple of ex-friends to brutally slaughter."

And with that, he charged off in a blur after the car. Cackles and jeers from within echoed out into the night, mingled with the tires shrieking as Xion burned rubber to stay ahead of him. I shook my head, deciding to leave them to it as I turned my back on the scene and made my way inside.

I was still a little rattled from that whole… ahem, _experience_. My cheeks had yet to make a full recovery, still redder than molten magma and three times as hot. But hey, that was an improvement over the _ten_ times as hot they'd been during the entire car ride, so… progress! Awesome. Not to mention I felt physically and emotionally exhausted and was pretty sure at least five years had been taken off my life. I was just about ready to curl up in bed and hibernate until next Spring.

But first I had a certain sister to march to the gallows.

After climbing several flights of stairs to reach the door to my apartment, I unlocked it and stepped inside to find the room dark. My hand groped about the wall for a second before locating and flicking the switch, light flooding the space.

"Do you have any idea what time it is you're coming home, missy?"

Startled, I spun around to find Rayne seated at the dining table, arms crossed, eyes stern, and steaming mug resting atop a coaster in front of her. Yeesh, at this rate, my heart wasn't going to hold out much longer. Hadn't the poor, defenseless organ suffered enough scares for one evening? Eyelids drooping, I said, "I don't know… maybe ten minutes after _you_ got home?"

Her lips pursed to one side. "...touché."

"So how long have you just been sitting here in the dark like a weirdo?" I asked as I dropped my keys onto the table and moved to the fridge, opening it up.

She shrugged and grinned, "Not long. Maybe a minute or two. Thought it really sold the whole vibe I was going for."

"Oh, it did," I pulled out a water bottle, nudging the door shut behind me as I unscrewed the cap. "Nice mother voice, by the way. That I'm-not-mad-just-disappointed tone of yours is really coming along quite beautifully."

"Aw, thanks!"

This whole being her parenting test dummy thing was starting to get a bit out of hand. But eh, it sort of grows on you after a while.

"So where's Riku? Surprised he's not out here too, enabling your neurosis," I quirked an eyebrow as I brought the water to my lips.

Rayne waved a dismissive hand, "Brushing his teeth and getting ready for bed."

"And Anna?" Was kind of shocked the flat was as quiet as it was right now, given that the crimson tornado that was my sister was supposedly lurking about somewhere.

As if on cue, there was a rumbling, disembodied snuffle, followed by a mumbled, "...pink yetis… fluffy unicycles…"

She jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "Passed out stone cold on the couch like the absolute lush she is."

Setting the plastic bottle down on the table, I went over to the sofa to discover Anna flopped there in an undignified heap, hair already knotted into a bedheaded rat's nest, arms snuggling a pillow close as she snored and murmured more incoherent gibberish.

So even evil criminal masterminds looked all sweet and innocent while sleeping. Go figure.

"So you gonna fill me in?" Rayne asked, drawing my attention back to her.

My brow furrowed. "On what?"

She blew on her beverage before taking a careful sip, shooting me a deadpan look. "On whatever happened that has your cheeks lit up like a pair of stoplights and has you looking ready to strangle your lil sis."

"Stopl-?!" I scoffed, turning my head to one side. Come on, face, you're weak! Get your act together already. "My cheeks are fine and I most certainly do _not_ want to strangle her."

"Tell that to your hands."

I looked down and said hands were clawed and halfway to Anna's throat.

Hehe… how did _those_ get there?

Hastily snatching them back to hide behind me, I just gave Rayne a feeble chuckle by way of answer. She patted the chair beside her, "Sit."

I hesitated before doing as I was told. As I lowered myself into the seat, I pulled my hair free of its ponytail, my anxious fingers combing through the soft, platinum strands. My little talk with Lea after the whole ordeal had actually been rather comforting and an odd calm had managed to settle over me in the minutes since. I say 'odd' because it was _me_ after all, the PanicBot 3000. However, now that I was running over the events again in my head and trying to figure out how to best put them into words, I could feel that calm fraying at the edges and beginning to unravel.

Gnawing on my lower lip, I began, "So, you know... cars… right?"

Oh excellent. Off to a superb start here. Simply smashing.

She gave me a dull stare. "...I'm aware of the concept, yes."

My hands, unable to keep still, moved to haphazardly weave my hair into a loose braid. "And you know how they have, uh… limited seating?" She merely gave a patient nod and here I struggled, feeling my cheeks crank up the heat again.

Damn it, face, what did we _just_ talk about?!

What little poise I had left suddenly ripped to tatters like tissue paper and I snapped, "Well I had to get home _somehow,_ didn't I? And you'd left and Anna'd left and, and the _keys_ had left! I tried to get them to come back but Anna was too busy talking about glue and making static noises and- ugh, she can be such a- anyway, I considered hotwiring her car, obviously, but had to toss out that idea due to lack of tools or experience or, you know, actually _knowing_ how to hotwire, so when Xion offered, I… well, there really was no other choice, was there? But there were no more- I shouldn't have been surprised, really, I just _knew_ something was up and oh-ho, you can _bet_ she and Anna planned it all, but still, that doesn't change the fact that I had to sit _somewhere_ and there was really no other alternatives, I mean… okay, Xion? Driving. The twins? Twigs. Uncomfortable. And Naminé? So small, I would have _crushed_ her. So, I guess, by process of elimination, when… when you _really_ think about it, Lea was just the just most logical choice! I mean, I didn't _want_ to, I didn't even know what was- not until it had already- and then once I was… ya know, _there_ , Xion, she… she just kept stopping and starting and stopping and, and hitting every- it was like a damn bouncy castle in there! I wanted to leave, oh dear god, you have no idea how much I just wanted to _leave_ , but I couldn't because apparently Roxas likes to pull a friggin' Superman or whatever on the highway whenever he's-"

Rayne clamped a hand over my mouth, silencing me except for the loud, rapid breaths through my nose. Her eyes squinted at me. "So… cliff notes version? Xion gave you a ride home."

Her palm still effectively muzzling me, I simply nodded.

"...but she already had a full car and there were no seats left?"

I nodded again, hands twisting and tugging on my now complete, if somewhat sloppy braid.

"So you had to sit," here a slow smirk curled her lips, "on Lea."

My head bobbed frantically now and I was jerking on the braid so hard, I was afraid I'd rip it clean out of my scalp.

She snerked. Then spluttered. Then busted up laughing, nearly falling out of her chair.

...so _not_ cool.

I kicked her in the shin, shutting her up just as Anna shot up on the couch, disturbed from her slumber by all the noise. My sister looked around, all bleary-eyed and slack-jawed, doing her best zombie impersonation. Don't think she'd quite made a full exit out of dreamland. She groggily turned her head towards us, smacked her lips and mumbled, "What's the sum of pizza divided by the square root of sandwiches?"

We both blinked at her before I shrugged and Rayne shook her head.

"Chartreuse," she enunciated slowly and with an air of authority. Then she flumped back down, snoring thunderously once more.

Rayne began to snicker again, more softly this time and I shoved away the hand that was still acting as a jury-rigged gag, huffing, "I fail to see what's so funny about all this."

Wiping the corners of her eyes, she tried to sober her expression but only ended up cracking up again, saying, "You gave Lea a lap dance!"

Just about every last ounce of blood in my body flooded up into my face. "Wha- I- He- I most certainly did _not!_ "

Her hand now went to pat my shoulder, "Okay, okay, sweetie, just answer a few quick and simple questions for me. Were you or were you not in his lap?"

"Well, yes, technically, but-"

"And did you not dance in said lap?"

" _No_ , I did no such-"

"Fine," her hands came up in a placating gesture, "allow me to retract and rephrase the question. Was there not the shifting and moving of your body in his lap? Answer truthfully now," she tacked on quickly as I opened my mouth, "for I do believe the term 'bouncy castle' was used earlier."

My teeth clicked shut as I glowered at her. "...well, yes, I suppose there may have been some… _inadvertent_ shifting, but-"

"And," she pressed on gleefully, "is not 'the moving and shifting of one's body' an acceptable, working definition of the word… dancing?"

I narrowed my eyes at her and said nothing.

She smugly relaxed back in her seat. "Let the record show the defendant is speechless. I rest my case."

"...I really hate you right now," I grumbled, snatching up my water bottle again and unscrewing the lid.

"Love ya too, sweetpea," Rayne winked and blew me a kiss. She then fell silent for a second, eyeing me thoughtfully as I took a sip. Then, "You know Lea used to be a big ol' man-slut?"

I choked.

Nope, still can't breathe water yet.

Coughing and wheezing as I put my drink back down, I struggled to get out, "Excuse me?"

"Oh yeah," she plonked her elbows on the table, chin nestled in her palms as she smiled big at me. "You know the type. Smooth talker, real charmer, taking a different girl back to his place every night. It was almost kind of amazing watching him work. He had it down to an art form, but not like in a sleazy douchebag way… he just loved the ladies and the ladies loved him, I suppose."

"...okay?" Wasn't quite sure why she was telling me this.

"And when you and him got left alone in the booth earlier tonight? Well there was a time not too long ago that the, ah… discourse between you two? Would have ended up a lot less _vertical_ and a little more _horizontal_ , if ya know what I'm saying," she waggled her eyebrows at me.

I scoffed, "Please. I don't care how much of a ladykiller he was, this is still _me_ we're talking about here."

She gave a low hum at that. "True. Talk about unstoppable force meets immovable object. Now I'm actually pretty curious about how that all would've really played out." Her shoulders shrugged, "Anyway, when he went back to college again, he decided to hang up his casanova hat. He really wanted to give his education a fair shake this time around, which to him meant cutting out all his vices and distractions, including women. None of us took him seriously at first, but he's surprised us all by sticking to it. For over a year now, he's been on his best behavior. A total priest."

Huh. I do remember when he was telling me about going back to school, he did say something about dropping old habits… I guess maybe dating had been one of them?

Rayne gave an abrupt, tiny snerk, muffling it behind her knuckles. A crease formed between my eyebrows, "What?"

She shook her head, "Sorry, sweetheart, I didn't mean to laugh. You just, heh… looked a smidge disappointed there for a second."

Annnnd there my cheeks went again. I swear, like a couple of furnaces, they were. Averting my gaze with a scowl, I said, "I'm not- ugh! I... was just trying to figure out where all this was coming from, why you felt the need to share."

"Ah." Her eyes crinkled and I got the feeling she didn't quite fully believe me. Whatever, if seeing things that weren't there made her happy, then more power to her. Let the crazy woman have her delusions. "I just wanted to give you some context. Knowing all that about Lea now, does it come as any real surprise then that Xion decided to have some fun at his expense tonight by testing his resolve and literally dropping a cute girl in his lap that he obviously has a little crush on?"

Those furnaces exploded into a fiery wreckage. "He- he _absolutely_ does _not!_ " I take it back. The crazy woman needs to have her delusions confiscated, no good can come from them in her demented hands! "This isn't kindergarten, please! He hardly even knows me."

"That's the thing about crushes, boo. You don't _have_ to really know the person," she flashed a cheshire grin and poked me in the nose, "just think they're a total cutie-patootie! And trust me, the minute those sweet, candy lips of yours found their way to his on that fateful day, that poor boy was a goner."

I rolled my eyes, "Oh shush, you're just being silly now."

"Am not. In fact, betcha that's why Anna was Xion's cohort in all of this. She wanted to play cupid."

"No, Anna was just sowing chaos and mayhem like the demon imp she is because that's what Anna does best," I shot my sister an accusatory glance. In response, she defended herself most eloquently by snoring louder. Returning my attention to Rayne, I sighed, "Seriously, Lea doesn't see me that way. We're just friends."

"You'd be singing a different tune if you saw the way he was looking at you during karaoke," she lilted playfully.

Voice flat, I said, "What, like I was some kind of tone-deaf walrus?"

She gave a soft _tch_ , "Girl, don't even. Self-deprecating isn't a good color on you. You crushed it, and I mean _crushed_ it. And you know I never sugarcoat things, so you know I'm telling the truth! But no, I was talking specifically about during the second verse of the song."

"The second…?" I frowned, thinking back. "...you mean the part where I got embarrassed by the lyrics and closed my eyes?"

Rayne nodded, "Mm-hm. And do you know what else you were doing?"

"Um…" Was this a trick question? "...singing?"

"And?" she prompted. I just stared at her blankly. Both eyebrows shot up her forehead and she smirked. "Oh pumpkin, you really have no idea, do you? Well, allow me to enlighten you. You had yourself a cute lil shimmy going, complete with swaying hips, a seductive crook of your finger, and a hand gliding up and down your thigh as you sang," her voice got theatrically husky, " _feel your way._ "

I grew paler and my eyes more round with every word. "I- I did not! I w-would have known if- I wouldn't j-just…" The words died on my tongue as she just simply nodded slyly at me. My mouth went dry as my face scrunched up in disbelief, my hands wrenching at my braid once more. "...did I? I mean, I… I was picturing the scene from the movie in my head, pretending I was there instead of making a fool of myself in front of a room full of people. I guess maybe I was just, I don't know... getting into character?"

She shrugged, "Whatever you were doing, it certainly caused Lea to experience some, uh, heh… minor technical difficulties."

Oh gosh, and here I'd thought the car ride was bad enough, but this? This was just the cherry on top. Not to mention the Kissident or... fudge, I just couldn't stop humiliating myself in front of this guy, could I? "I was… probably just making him awkward and uncomfortable, that's all. But he really is always so nice about everything." I stared down at my fingers, fidgeting with them now. "Do you know what he actually said after karaoke? He said I should try looking into singing professionally… which is absolutely ridiculous, of course, but still, it was sweet of him to say."

"Don't think I didn't notice the oh so subtle attempt to change the subject there, sugarcube," she gave a wry harrumph into her mug. I just avoided her gaze. Can you blame me? I just wanted to put this ludicrous and baseless topic behind us already. "But I'll let it slide. And that's actually not a bad idea."

My eyes blinked at her. "You're joking. Become a successful singer? Please, one has better odds of winning the lottery while being struck by lightning _and_ hit by a rogue meteor at the same time!"

"And who said anything about becoming a career singer? There are other ways of putting that silver voice of yours to work. Like, for example... musicals. You know, as in play acting. Now don't give me that look, it's not like I'm not talking Broadway or nothing… not yet anyway. But there's plenty of small theaters out there that would kill to have a nightingale like you on retainer."

I huffed out a tiny snort through my nose. "Aren't you forgetting something? Like, oh say, I don't know… my crippling anxiety, crushing stage fright, and, ya know… absolutely zero acting experience?"

She folded her arms under her chest, "And aren't _you_ forgetting something? Like, oh say, I don't know… summer camp musicals? And how you always just freaking _slayed_ at all the lead parts?"

...oh wow, I actually _had_ forgotten all about those. Camp felt like ages ago by now. Almost nothing more than a distant, fading dream. Frowning up at the ceiling, I murmured, "The musicals… _were_ one of my favorite things about camp. They were the one place where I didn't have to be my awkward, scared, pathetic self, that I could pretend to be someone else completely. It was an escape, it… helped." Then I slowly shook my head, "But that's different. It was a long time ago, I was a kid, I… I couldn't be like that today."

"Couldn't you?" her head tilted slightly. "You really seemed to get into it with the karaoke. You said it yourself, you got into character without even realizing it. It was like the very spirit of Sandra D had possessed you." She smiled, closing her eyes, "I think you might be a natural, cupcake."

...me? A natural? Yeah right! There was no way, not in a million years! …I mean, unless… maybe… maybe if-

I shook my head again, more rapidly this time, banishing any such preposterous notions from my mind before scooting my chair out and rising to my feet. "Clearly you're still fake drunk. You should really get to work sleeping it off. I'll be heading to bed now myself. Good night," I said firmly. End of discussion. Topic closed. I grabbed my water bottle and marched off towards the door to my room.

Of all the silly, crazy, _absurd-_

"You know I'm right," she called out brightly after me. "And hey… any verdict on Anna yet?"

I paused long enough to shoot the girl in question a sour look over my shoulder. She mumbled something in her sleep, rolled over and brazenly flung one leg up over the back of the couch. My lips pressed together into a thin line.

"...let her sleep. I'll murder her in the morning."

* * *

_**Author's Note:** Oh gosh, I do so love to torture Elsa! And by extension, Lea too, tho it's a very different kind of torture xD But I think I managed to wrap up that lil car misadventure sweetly enough by the end of it!_ _Thank you so much for reading, especially to those of you who have left a kudos and shared with me your thoughts and feelings on this story so far! Remember, feedback is not only welcome, but highly encouraged and super appreciated!_


	12. Chapter 12

There was no way.

No. _Friggin'_. Possible. Way.

Rayne was bonkers. Off her rocker. Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. A couple screws short of a toolbox, a few cards shy of a full deck, and several fries scant of a Happy Meal.

She was just… _wrong_. She had to be. The very idea was outrageous. Laughable, even. There was just without a doubt and quite simply no way.

No way that Lea had a crush on me, that is.

I mean, come on! All I'd ever done was make a complete bumbling idiot out of myself in front of the guy! I'd kissed him before uttering so much as my very first 'hello' to him, chucked a phone at a wall in front of him for no apparent reason after spouting off nonsensical gibberish, _sat_ on him without even the slightest bit of a heads up or forewarning - which to be fair wasn't really my fault, but _still!_ I could go on and on with this list, but I'd rather not as it was just depressing me at this point.

Had a crush on me? Please, he probably just saw me as a total trainwreck of a human being by now and was merely half curious, half terrified to see what would next be pulled out of the bag of crazy that was me. So no, he absolutely did _not_ have any sort of feelings even remotely resembling… _that_. Not at all. Not towards me.

...so then why did I now find myself hovering outside the mall, trapped in a heated staring contest with my pale reflection in the glass door as arriving and leaving customers gave me weird looks, the very idea of so much as taking one more single, solitary step over that threshold and into the food court seeming utterly _impossible_ to me?

It'd been a couple days since the now infamous (or so it was in my head, at least) Friday night out. A couple of days which I'd thankfully had off from work, giving me some much needed time to recuperate from all that stressful social activity. By the grace of some benevolent deity up above, not to mention my magnanimous, boundless mercy, Anna still lived. But she hadn't got off without a long, stern, and particularly mind-numbing lecture from me, as well as a promise from her to keep me stocked in a lifetime supply of Triple Chocolate Mallowpuffs by way of recompense. She wasn't completely off the hook yet, but it was a start.

During my downtime, I had given little to no thought to Rayne's musings - aka unhinged ravings of a madwoman. Oh sure, the stray ghost of her words might have flitted across the back of my mind once or twice. But whenever they had, I'd simply banished the silly notion with a soft chuckle and a shake of my head.

Which is why I wasn't quite sure what the big deal was now, out of the blue, here, at the entrance to Dusk Town Center, right before my first shift back since the night at the bar. Why in my brain, her words had cranked up from a barely audible whisper to a full blasting, thundering roar played on loop. Why the idea of facing Lea now just all of a sudden seemed so…

... _intimidating_.

...ugh, this was stupid.

_I_ was being stupid.

It wasn't like I was some third grader in the schoolyard afraid of catching cooties from a boy. I was an adult, damn it! An adult in the adult world with an adult job leading an adult life! So I could handle any such feelings, or more specifically _lack thereof_ , like a goddamn adult!

He did not have a crush on me.

He did _not_.

With that, a newfound determination filled me. Eyes hardening, chest puffing up, and shoulders squaring, I grabbed the door handle, yanked it open with more force than necessary and marched into the food court with my head held high.

...followed immediately by flipping a one-eighty, dashing back outside and around a corner to hide, pressing my back against the wall with one hand over my hammering heart.

Well done, champ. A for effort. Did a real bang up job there, eh?

I took a few seconds to regain my composure and fortify my resolve. Then I inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly, straightening up to my full height once more. Alright, take two. Giving myself a firm, reassuring nod, I walked back inside again.

It was there, seated at a food court table roughly halfway between Pizza Planet and Ice Palace, that the reason for my initial retreat could be spotted. Lea was hunched over what looked to be a textbook of some sort, with papers covered in messy scrawl strewn about every inch of the round dining surface. He was gnawing a pencil between his teeth and agitatedly ruffling his hair as flipped to the next page. I don't know why I had given into my knee-jerk reaction to run from him the second I'd seen him. He was so engrossed in whatever he was working on, I highly doubted he'd even noticed me walk in. And I was strongly suspecting he'd probably continue to fail to notice me if I just strolled straight on past him to the Ice Palace to prepare for the start of my shift.

Which is exactly what I was going to do.

Or at least, that'd been the plan anyway.

But something stopped me. A sort of… stubbornness that abruptly flared up within me. I wanted to settle this right here, right now. Prove once and for all without a doubt that Rayne was in fact a total loon and that he definitely did _not_ see me as anything more than just a friend. I still had a few more minutes before I had to clock in, so now was a good a time as any.

Seizing the opportunity before I could overthink things and lose my nerve, I made a detour and headed straight towards where Lea sat. Arriving at his table, I pulled out the chair across from him and sat down heavily, burdened with great purpose.

Alright. Phase One of the Mission Not A Crush complete. On to Phase Two.

Which was…?

Good question. Was actually... still kind of, sort of trying to figure that one out.

Potentially a greeting of some sort would be a good place to start.

As Lea glanced up and became aware of my presence at last, I began, "H-"

He leapt out of his seat and bolted, knocking several loose papers off the table in his wake.

I blinked.

...see? Not a crush.

Not if he was running away in fear at the very sight of me.

As well he should. I was a very fearsome vision to behold, after all. My mere visage redefined the very essence of horror, did it not? Look upon me and tremble, puny mortals, for I-

" _Ow!_ Hey, quit it already!" a voice that sounded suspiciously like Xion's pulled me from my thoughts.

Turning my head towards where it'd come from, sure enough, there Lea was with the girl in tow. Literally. He was dragging Xion over to the table by one of her ears pinched between his fingers. The two of them pulled up to a stop in front of me, Lea scowling as he released her and she stumbled a few steps forward. With a tiny hiss of pain as she rubbed the abused lobe, she glanced back at him. He simply crossed his arms and started tapping his foot, clearly waiting for something.

Xion looked at me now with a guilty frown, folding her hands together just below her waist and bowing her head. "Please forgive me, Elsa, I am so very, _very_ sorry. Sorry for tricking you-"

Lea cleared his throat.

She hastily tacked on, "-and for conspiring with Anna-"

He did it again, louder this time.

"-and, uh… for manhandling you into my car-"

A third time.

"-and…" she pursed her lips to one side, squinting up in thought, "...and for not driving with the comfort and safety of my passengers in mind-"

Once more, with feeling.

"-and for, ah… providing… less than optimal seating arrangements to you throughout the whole experience?" Xion ventured, glancing back at Lea. He rolled his eyes but gave a shrug, which she seemed to take more or less as a sign of his grudging acceptance. Her eyes then fixed on me once more, "I meant no offense, but sincerely apologize if I embarrassed you or made you feel uncomfortable in any way."

...this… I had not been expecting.

I just stared blankly at her for a second. Then I realized she was patiently awaiting my response. "Oh! Um," I gave a tiny awkward laugh, "that's okay. We're fine. Totally good. Don't, uh… don't even worry about it."

Her face immediately lit up with a relieved smile. "Thanks, you're the sweetest!" Then she gave Lea a dull look. "Satisfied? Can I get back to my job now?"

His eyelids drooped, but he sighed and waved her off. She ran past him, blowing a raspberry in his direction as she went. He plopped back down into his chair at the table, pinching the bridge of his nose as he grumbled, "Kids these days, I swear."

"Thanks," I smiled at him, "that was really very thoughtful, but you didn't have to make her do that. It wasn't necessary."

"Somebody's gotta teach the lil twerp good manners and respect," he leaned back in his chair slightly, scratching a spot behind his ear. "Her parents certainly never did."

Humming a soft, noncommittal noise, I then looked down at the clutter littered across the table. "So what are you up to? What is all this?"

"Decided to take my lunch break to try and unravel the enigma that is," he held the textbook up, showing me the cover, " _Intro to Calculus_. It's being a real pain in the ass though. Honestly, who needs to know all this crap? Evil math genius super villains, that's who! Shit, I'm just looking to run a lil shanty of an ice cream parlor by the sea, not trying to calculate how to blow up the sun or anything," he tossed his pencil down against the open pages of the book.

I rubbed a knuckle along my lips as I felt them tug up at one corner. "Not math's biggest fan, I take it?"

"Not my strong point, no, but usually I can get by. Unfortunately, I caught some kinda bug a couple weeks back and had to miss a few days of lectures. Asked the teach what I missed, but he's a royal asshole. Just brushed me off, telling me to talk to his TA instead."

"And the TA?"

"Mini asshole in the making," he scoffed, snatching up a small stack of sheets from the table to wave about. "Just handed me his photocopied notes for the days I was out sick and told me to figure it out. They're useless though. I can't read his chicken scratch. A big test is coming up on all of this too that's s'posed to be a huge chunk of our grade, so I really need to wrap my head around this junk."

"Maybe I can help. Let me see." I moved closer, shifting over to the seat beside him. My shoulder brushed against his as I leaned in, spotting a piece of paper sticking out from beneath the textbook on which it looked like he'd been trying to (unsuccessfully) work through some of the chapter's exercise problems. "Derivatives, huh?" I murmured, picking it up to take a closer look. Then I pointed to the first equation, "This one is almost right, you just forgot to conjugate the binomial. It's an easy mistake, anyone could've made it."

"I, uh…" he trailed off. I glanced over at him, realization just now smacking me like a ton of bricks at how close our faces were. Boundaries, Elsa, boundaries! Dropping the paper, I quickly pulled away, spine banging firmly against the back of my seat. Clearing his throat, Lea picked up the sheet and glared down at it, "Damn, I thought I did that!" After a couple seconds of scrutiny, he grabbed his pencil and started furiously erasing his work before jotting in new numbers, his knee jiggling restlessly beneath the table. The scratching of the graphite stilled almost immediately however as he looked over at me, quirking an eyebrow. "...weren't you an Art History major?"

Reaching for my ponytail to self-consciously pluck at a tendril, I said, "Well, yeah, but I'm pretty good with numbers too. You're in luck, Calculus was just about where I called it when it came to college math courses. I mean, I took the class a couple years ago, but a lot of it's still pretty fresh in my brain. I'd be happy to work through more of it with you, but..." I frowned up at the giant clock hanging over the food court entrance. "My shift's about to start."

His eyes followed my gaze and he grimaced. "Crap, I need to punch back in myself." He rose to his feet, slamming the book shut and swiftly gathering all his stuff into one big, crumpled heap. His gaze shifted to glance at me out of his peripheral. "...you working tomorrow?"

I stood as well, tipping my head to one side. "No, but then I'm back on the schedule for the next three days after it. Why?"

"Good, I have it off too." Things more or less together now, he picked the sloppy stack up and tucked it under one arm as he slid the pencil behind one ear. "You think maybe you could help me cram for my exam? Say…" he looked away, rubbing the nape of his neck, "...my place around noon tomorrow?"

My eyes widened a fraction. "Oh! Uh… yes. Sure. Of course! I don't already have plans, so I'd be glad to. What are friends for, after all?"

Note the keyword here: _friends_. Cuz that's what we were. Period.

The huge smile that broke out across his face now all but blinded me. "Thanks, El, you rock! I owe you big time for this! I'll treat you to an absolute mountain of your favorite ice cream, which is…" he paused, narrowing his eyes for a second before snapping his fingers and pointing at me. "...Goofy Parfait? No, too basic… Double Crunch? Nah, that's not it either. Eh, I'll figure it out sooner or later! I'm closing in, I can feel it!" He started jogging backwards towards the Pizza Planet. "Anyway, you can get my address from Raindrop! S-" He bumped into a plastic chair, stumbled for a bit before catching himself as another paper flew loose. "Heh… meant to do that. See ya tomorrow!" He waved then turned and sprinted off to avoid clocking in late.

I raised my hand, my fingers curling in a tentative wave back, "Yeah… tomorrow…"

So _that_ , apparently, was Phase Two of Mission Not A Crush.

Go to his home and prove it there.

Perfect.

What could possibly go wrong?

* * *

A lot.

That was the answer you were looking for.

A _lot_ could go wrong.

Starting with-

"Ahhhhh!" Rayne squealed _yet again_ as she turned the steering wheel, making the car take a right down a side road. "I can't believe my baby's going on her first date! It really is true, they grow up so fast!" she gave a mock sniffle as she reached over to pinch my cheek.

My left eye twitched and I swatted her hand away. It was a mistake telling her. But Lea _had_ told me to get his address from her. And of course the second I'd asked, she had insisted on driving me there. Should have seen that one coming a mile away. I sighed, "I've had dates before. It's kind of hard to wind up engaged without going on a few dates first. Not impossible, mind you, but hard. And it's _not_ a date, I'm just helping him study for a test."

"Mmmhmmm, sure," she gave me a knowing smirk, "and I'll bet you get all dolled up in a new dress like this for all your other not-a-dates."

"Please, I bought this secondhand in a thrift shop for ten dollars, I hardly call that getting dolled up," I rolled my eyes before looking down at myself.

As it turns out, yesterday had been payday. Meaning my first check, hallelujah! I think this officially made me a bonafide adult. And seeing as how my wardrobe was limited to my work clothes, a couple of hand-me-downs from Rayne that she no longer wore, and that one outfit I had, er… shall we say "borrowed" during my whirlwind escape on my wedding day, I had felt some clothes shopping had been in order after I got off shift yesterday. But working at an ice cream shop in the local mall doesn't exactly have you rolling in the big bucks, as one might imagine, so I'd quickly discovered that a used clothing store was a dirt poor girl's best friend.

I'll admit that I had lucked out a bit with the sundress I now wore, given that it'd come from the bargain bin and had even miraculously fit like a glove. It was a pastel blue with tiny, faded white polka dots, its gently billowing skirt falling to just below my knees. Triple spaghetti straps held it up at the shoulders and it had a sweetheart neckline with embroidered, white lace trim. It was high waisted, with ribbon weaving up the front of the bodice segment and a loose bow tied at the small of my back. Paired with my usual ankle boots of course, because really, who had the munny for more than one pair of shoes? Not me, that's for sure! But the best part? Stockings. Blessed, blessed stockings! My legs could die happy now.

So was it a new dress? Yes, but that was more so to do with my distinct lack of other options than anything else. And, okay sure, the thought had crossed my mind that this was the first time Lea would be seeing me not in Ice Palace attire, so of _course_ I'd wanted to look at the very least, erm… presentable? Yes, that was the word. _Presentable_. Was that a crime now? I think not!

"Well I think you look cute enough to eat!" she declared before waggling her eyebrows at me. "I'm sure that's what Lea will be thinking too."

"Oh my god, Rayne!" I huffed, hiding my face in my hands and slouching down into the car seat.

I don't know a lot about having friends, but I wonder if they're exchangeable. Like, if you can return them to Ye Olde Friend Shoppe and get store credit that can go towards the purchase of a new gal pal, one that's not delusional and won't take sadistic pleasure in teasing you mercilessly. Yeah, that'd be super-duper nice right about now.

"We hath arrived!" I heard her gleefully announce, feeling the vehicle come to a full stop.

I peeked out between my fingers to see we were now parked at the curb beside a long, colorful row of what looked to be duplex apartments. As I lowered my hands completely, Rayne suddenly seized my chin and jerked my face towards her, studying me with eyes squinted. My brow furrowed, "...what are you doing?"

"Hold still." My jaw still trapped within her iron grasp, she reached for her bag in the backseat, hand noisily rummaging inside for a few seconds before pulling out a light brown makeup pencil. "I wanna make those adorable freckles of yours hella pop so that boy really goes all weak in the knees."

"Ugh!" I yanked my chin free and snatched the pencil away from her, rolling down my window and chucking it outside the car.

"Hey! Those aren't free, you know!"

"Tack it onto what I owe for rent," I grumbled as I closed the window again.

"Whatever," she huffed before she started taking off her jacket. "Take this, will you? It's chilly out, I don't want you to get cold."

Unbuckling my seatbelt, I gently pushed the proffered garment away, "I'll be fine. The cold never bothered me anyway, you know that."

She shrugged, tossing it into the back. "Suit yourself, but don't come crying to me when you catch your death out there." I reached for the door handle, but stopped as she said, "Hold it, c'mere." Oi, what now? I slowly turned my head to cock an eyebrow at her. She licked the pad of her thumb and wiped it across my cheek, "You got a lil schmutz."

I couldn't get out of the car fast enough, staggering onto the sidewalk and whipping around to slam the door shut behind me, nostrils flaring as I narrowed my eyes down at her.

She lowered the passenger window again, gracing me with a sly grin. "Have fun on your study date, sweetpea!"

"It's not a-" The engine roared and she cackled as she sped off. I stamped my foot and crossed my arms, lips twisting sourly. "...date."

It wasn't! That was in fact what I'd come here to prove, after all. That there was no crush and this was not a date. She'd see. I'd show her. Then we'd see who got the last laugh. Ha!

As I turned to face the line of apartments, I realized I had no clue which one was supposed to be Lea's. Rayne had never given me a unit number, just told me she knew exactly where it was and would take me there. I would hope that this one coated in a dingy cherry paint that she'd dropped me off directly in front of would be it, but with that girl's sanity track record lately, I couldn't be sure that was a totally safe bet. Still, I had to knock on one of these doors, so this one was as good as any to try first.

Running my hands down my dress to smooth out the nonexistent wrinkles and sweeping my braid forward over one shoulder, I puffed out a slow breath and put one foot forward. Then, after a pause, the other. Then the other. Eventually, I was climbing the three steps that led up to the door and coming to a stop in front of it.

Then I hesitated, gnawing on my lower lip.

Smoothed my dress again.

Fidgeted with my braid some more.

...I was running out of ways to stall.

Inhaling and exhaling once more, I brought my fist up to the door, preparing to initiate Phase Two of Not A Crush. And came to an abrupt halt, my knuckles a hairbreadth's away from the wood.

Because now we came to the second thing to go wrong.

That being me realizing I had absolutely _zero_ idea of how to accomplish Phase Two.

In fact, what the heck was I even doing here? I struggled with regular one-on-one social interactions on any given normal day, even when I _didn't_ have an ulterior motive to worry about on the side. How on _earth_ had I fooled myself into believing I could handle it, this, here, _now_ , while juggling a stupidly self imposed secret mission as well? This was a _terrible_ plan! What the actual frick had I been thinking?! Did I know myself but at all?!

...you know what? I'm leaving. This was already too much and I hadn't even gotten past the friggin' front door yet. Sorry to bail, Lea, but you're a smart lad with a good head on your shoulders. I have the utmost faith in your ability to navigate yourself through the trials and tribulations of Calculus all on our own. Peace, I'm out!

Spinning on my heel, I rushed back down the steps and beelined for the sidewalk. The walk home wouldn't be short. And I hadn't been paying attention on the drive over, so I wasn't even sure which way I should go. But psssh, minor detail. I'd just pick a direction and if it was meant to be, I'd find myself on my own doorstep sooner or later, right? Right. Now _this_ was a plan I could get on board with. This, I could-

"El?"

I froze mid-step with a wince, gritting my teeth.

Fudge.

...should I just make a run for it?

Probably not. Pretty sure he was _way_ faster than me with those freakishly long legs of his.

Putting on a shaky smile, I stiffly turned back around to see that front door now open with Lea standing on the threshold, giving me a quizzical look.

And it was just hitting me now as I looked at him that this wasn't only going to be the first time he was seeing me out of work clothes, but the first time I was seeing him out of his too. He was wearing a long, untucked button up that was a deep purple plaid and sleeveless, with a black tee on underneath and a black, loose hoodie vest that hung open over it. His legs were clad in dark, _dark_ red skinny jeans, accompanied by tall black boots on his feet. His hair had been pulled back into a stylishly messy ponytail with a few spiky bangs poking free and of course he was sporting his usual guyliner. Though was it just my imagination or was there a bit of an extra swoosh to those wings at the corner of his eyes today? Probably just my imagination.

He… cleaned up pretty good.

...I mean, not that I pay attention to stuff like that or anything. Ahem, anyway!

"Where ya going?" He moved one step down the small set of cement stairs, grinning slightly. "You know that's the wrong direction, right? Living room's this way."

"...it is?"

First thing to blurt out of my mouth and we're off to a simply _superb_ start here.

"Oh! Y-yes! Of course it is! I… I knew that! But, ah…" I took a teeny step backwards. "...I forgot something at… at home!"

Yeah, my backbone.

"That's it!" I laughed weakly and there was another shift back of my feet. "So I was just going to, you know…" I jerked both thumbs to the right, "go get it! Then… come straight back. Here. To your place, uh... o-of course!"

He frowned, looking down the street before glancing back at me. "You were gonna walk? Isn't that kinda far? Tell ya what, let me go grab my car keys and I can swing you back by your place real quick."

"No!" I threw up my hands, rapidly shaking my head. Drat. Thwarted. "N-no, that's… that's fine. And you know what? It's... not actually all that important. Really! Turns out I, um… I don't need it after all."

Looks like it was just time for me to grow a spine instead.

"Oh. Okay then, if you're sure," he shrugged before heading back up the steps and walking inside, holding the door open wide for me and smiling big. "Come on in. Mi casa es su casa!"

"Th...thanks," I managed to squeak past the anxiety squeezing my throat, making it hard to get words out. Taking a deep breath, I clenched and unclenched my clammy hands before clasping them together in front of me just below my waist. Then I rallied, if only just barely, and got myself up those stairs and inside, hearing him shut the door behind me.

The room I'd stepped into was open and rather spacious. To the right seemed to be the living room, in the middle of which stood a long coffee table, a couple of armchairs, a well-worn plush blue sofa covered in far too many pillows (all of them mismatched) and a large rug checkered in various shades of red. A giant dark wood entertainment center took up one wall with a large flat screen in the middle. The shelves surrounding it were mostly filled with books and DVDs, but there were a few odds and ends to decorate it as well, such as a couple of red frisbees sporting sinister-faced fireball decals in one cubbie, while in another sat a framed chart of what looked to be the lunar cycle.

To my left was a dinette space with its table already buried underneath a textbook and a mound of papers, and further to the left beyond that lay the kitchen. The two rooms were separated by an island counter wedged between a pair of thick square columns, the one furthest forward having a skinny door in it that was currently closed. Behind the dinner table and further back in the apartment was an open arch leading into a small corridor - more of an alcove, really - with two doors on the back wall and two more at either end of the hall.

"So..." I began as I glanced around, fingers already fiddling with the tip of my braid, "this is your casa?"

"Yup! Let me give you the grand tour." He all but bounced into the sitting area, arms dramatically flourishing in his best Vanna White impersonation. "The living room! Top of the line and comes with all the deluxe amenities you could ever dream of, including a couch as ugly as sin and a rug old enough to be your father!"

I snorted into my fist, biting back a tiny grin as I felt some of my tenseness beginning to fade, if only by a smidge. "Fancy."

"You like that? Well then prepare to have your mind blown." He darted over to the left side of the apartment now, presenting it with another theatrical sweep of his hands. "Dining room! And get this, you're never gonna guess… a _kitchen!_ "

"Wow, dining room _and_ kitchen? Amazing, you really do live in the lap of luxury here. My my, how the other half lives."

"I try not to let it go to my head. And check it out," he moved to the column bearing the small, inset door and pushed it open, revealing cramped shelves full of foodstuffs, "comes complete with itty-bitty pantry space!" It really was tiny. Could Lea even fit in there? Leaving the door open a crack, he then moved into the hallway, smacking a hand to the back door on the left. "My room." He pointed to the door at the right end of the hall, "Bathroom." Then the one at the left end, "Closet."

Nodding, I looked to the only remaining door directly to the right of Lea's bedroom. "And that one?"

He shook his head and waggled an index finger, "Oh-ho no, you don't wanna know what horrors lay beyond that door."

I quirked an eyebrow at that, one corner of my lips twitching upward. "Is that where you hide all the bodies then?"

"How'd you know?" He'd said it with such dead seriousness that for a second there, I started to get nervous. Then he snerked and chuckled, folding his arms beneath his chest as he leaned a shoulder against the inside of the archway. "You really are too easy, ya know that? Nah, that's just where I keep my household Saïx."

My head tilted. "...what's a Saïx?"

"Two for one deal, roomie-brother combo."

"You live with your brother? That sounds nice... not a lot of people do that after highschool."

One of his shoulders bobbed in a half-shrug, "Half-brother if ya wanna get technical, but yeah. We grew up in the foster system and had to put up with a lotta crap. Learned fast the best way to survive was for us to stick together. I guess old habits die hard. But I don't see him all that much anymore actually."

"Oh?" I frowned at that. "Why not?"

"I'm a creature of the sun, he's a child of the moon. Total night owl. His job keeps him up all hours and he sleeps all day. Nowadays I really only see him during breakfast which is his dinner and vice versa."

My eyebrows knit together. "What's he do for a living?"

Another bounce of the shoulder. "Hell if I know. He works remotely, so basically just locks himself up in his room all night glued to his laptop. Rox and Xion sometimes do take a late night though and caffeine up before dropping by to drag his ass outta his hidey-hole n' make sure he gets some fresh air every once in a while. The kiddos are convinced he's a vampire at this point, swear up and down that they've even seen him hiss at sunlight. But I know that's just silly. Totally ridiculous." Here he paused with a smirk. "Cuz he's _obviously_ a werewolf."

A smile tugged at my lips. "Obviously?"

"Yup! All the clues are there." He struck up a finger. "Crazy obsessed with the moon." Up went a second one. "Likes his steak so rare, it's still mooing. Classic sign of lycanthropy." A third digit joined the other two. "And here's the real kicker: dogs? Love him."

"Wow," I laughed softly. "Well then, with such irrefutable proof, hard to argue that logic."

"Thank you," Lea bowed his head. Then he pushed himself off the wall and walked over to the dining table, pulling out a chair for me. "On that note, shall we?"

I nodded, taking the offered seat and reaching for one of the pages of notes. "Sounds good. Let's get to it."

* * *

"Bueno Volcano?"

I glanced up from the open textbook before me, blinking once at Lea before my eyelids drooped. "No, I do not believe the derivative of F evaluated at X as H approaches zero is… Bueno Volcano."

Another one of our flavors of ice cream, as you might've already guessed.

He was staring at me with a completely straight face while wearing his pencil like a moustache. Removing it with a gentle harrumph, he leaned his chair back onto its hind legs, "C'mon, El, we've been at this for hours now. I need a study break."

I sighed through my nose, inserting a worksheet into the book to save the spot before shutting it. "Fine." I _was_ kind of getting stiff from sitting still for so long. Stretching one arm over my head and arching my back to work some of the kinks out of my muscles, I asked, "So, Bueno Volcano… final answer?"

Lea's seat wobbled precariously and he had to grab the table to keep from falling over. Ruffling his hair with a sheepish laugh, he then visibly mulled for a second before shaking his head, "Nah. Spicy veggie ice cream is just weird. _No one's_ into that junk."

"You'd be surprised," I hummed a chuckle, planting an elbow on a small stack of papers and resting my cheek in my palm. "You're running out of options. You sure you haven't guessed it already?"

"Positive. I'm getting warmer though. It's on the tip of my tongue now, I can practically taste it!"

I raised a brow at him. "So what's it taste like?"

He slapped a hand down to the table with a smile, declaring, "Victory!"

"...I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with that flavor," I deadpanned.

"Bah, don't get cute, you know what I meant," he bopped my forehead with his pencil and I flicked it away. Then he tapped it to his chin as he eyed me thoughtfully. "...so why Art History?"

Um…? Where had _that_ come from? Besides out of left field, that is. "What do you mean?"

He shrugged, twirling the pencil between his fingers now. "Just something I've been curious about… why pick that as your major? Why stick with it until you graduated if you weren't feeling it? Why even start it in the first place?"

"I, uh…" I averted my gaze, hands rushing up to toy with my braid. Answering those questions would involve bringing up my parents. And that was a whole other can of worms that I wasn't sure I was particularly ready to pop open just yet.

"Ooo, I'm sensing another secret." Grinning, he scooched his chair over closer to me now, bumping his knee into mine. "Don't worry, I know information isn't free. So how 'bout another trade? Tit for tat. Quid pro quo. One o' mine for one o' yours. I'll start." Then he was lifting up his shirts.

And I, in turn, was turning beet red and slapping a hand over my eyes.

Jeez, this guy did _not_ know how to keep his top on!

"I've had stitches!"

...oh.

My fingers tentatively parted and I saw that he'd only raised the layers of fabric by a few inches, revealing a jagged scar wrapped around his side just above his right hip, big and gnarly, but also old and long since healed. I was kind of amazed I hadn't noticed it the first time he was shirtless in front of me. Then again, he _had_ been drenched in ice cream at the time which had most likely covered it, and I _had_ been a little preoccupied with spazzing out and using my hat as a makeshift censor bar.

"What happened?" I breathed, lowering my hand.

"Saïx happened." I gaped up at him and he released the hems, letting them fall back into place as he batted a hand, "It was an accident. We were only kids at the time. But turns out a chainsaw? Not a toy."

I spluttered, "A ch-chainsaw?!"

"Pssh, it's no big deal, was only a lil one. It'd have to be for an eight year old to be able to lift it after all," he brushed off with a snerk.

Fixing him with a flat look, I muttered, "You and I have two very different definitions of 'no big deal.'"

"Trust me, it looks a lot worse than it actually was. Poor Saïx though, he thought he'd killed me and the little dweeb couldn't stop bawling his eyes out at the hospital. I think he cried more than I did that day, which is funny cuz I was always the bigger crybaby of the two of us." Lea smiled as he relaxed back into his chair a bit, interlocking his fingers behind his head, "Yeah, we were one screwed up pair o' brats. It's no wonder no family ever wanted to keep us monsters, we were a handful to say the least." Then he nudged my shoe with the toe of his boot, "Alright, your turn now."

I glanced away, pursing my lips to one side. Then I locked my gaze back on his with a tiny smirk. "I've shoplifted."

His eyes widened and his head rocked back a bit as he blinked at me a couple times. Then he was narrowing his gaze, "Okay, one, no fair, you know what info I wanted."

I let my shoulders rise and fall, "You just said a secret for a secret. Never specified I had to answer your earlier question."

The rolling of his eyes was his only retort to that before moving on, "Two... you? _Shoplift?_ " He gave a snort. "Does not compute. What was it even, a stick of gum? Some change from the Take-A-Munny-Leave-A-Munny tray?"

I lifted my chin a hair and inspected my nails, feeling a bit too pleased with myself. He'd thought he'd had me pegged. Well, I'd shown him. There's more to me than meets the eye, bucko. "Some clothes. These shoes," I slightly lifted one of my feet, presenting the left ankle boot. Then I paused for dramatic effect. "...a phonebook."

"A…?" he gave me a blank look for half a second. Then he burst out laughing, throwing up his hands, "Look out, we got ourselves a badass here! Behind that sweet, innocent face lurks the sinister mind a hardened criminal and cunning master thief! Best be careful or she'll come for your sticky notes and wall-hanging calendars next. Pfffft, a _phonebook_. Why? Just… why?"

Crossing my arms, I gave a derisive sniff. "I had my reasons."

Now he cocked his head to to the left, a sly curl twisting his lips. His interest had been piqued. He looked down, studying my shoes with a low hum. "...those still look kinda new. So your lil foray into the world of the five-finger discount had to of been pretty recent. I'd say… maybe a month ago, two tops."

I stiffened.

Oh no, I'd said too much.

I hastily pulled my feet back under my seat, as if to hide any further evidence he might gleen from them. "Speculate all you want, you're not getting anything else out of me."

"Oh, I see how it is. Tough nut to crack, eh?" His eyes crinkled as he leaned in closer to me, propping his elbows on his knees and tucking one arm behind the other. "Am I gonna have to go all good cop, bad cop on you now?"

...okay, cheeks, what's the deal here? I know you're still on red alert from the false alarm with the shirt earlier, but come on, this was nothing to be stoking the coals over! I cleared my throat, turning my head to one side, "No, it's just… that's a whole other secret, is all."

Lea straightened up in his seat, both eyebrows reaching for his hairline. "You mean you want _another_ one outta me?" He shook his head with a grin, rising to his feet now. "Damn, El, you drive a hard bargain. I need to rack my brain to come up with something else good for ya. I'm gonna grab a soda while I'm at it." He winced as he made his way over to the kitchen, "...and I'm just now realizing I've been a totally crap host this whole time. Did you want anything to drink?"

"Just a water, please?" I asked, soon hearing him clinking cups around followed by the sound of a running faucet. I looked down at my lap, tucking in my lower lip as my fingers tangled into the tuft of my braid. I don't know why I was still thinking about it. I'd successfully sidestepped the question and he'd let me off the hook without me giving any sort of explanation for now. And yet, it still lingered at the back of my brain… prickling, needling, until-

"It's because I was a coward." The words were out before I'd even realized it.

He looked up, blinking at me from across the island counter. "Pardon?"

"...why Art History," I clarified softly, my hands going to my lap now to clench slightly at the fabric of my dress. "Because I was a coward, too afraid to go against my parents' wishes. They… said it would be necessary in order to make me more refined and cultured for my eventual role as… as a wife to any potential future husband I may have had. And I just… It seemed… _easier_ just to go along with what they wanted."

"Woah," I heard him approaching again and watched out of the corner of my eye as a glass of water was set down at the table beside me. He retook his seat, a can of Kupo-Kola now in hand, "Remind me again, what era we living in? Coulda sworn we'd left the Dark Ages behind a few centuries ago." My gaze rose to meet his, a wilted attempt at a smile tugging my lips. He cracked the can open with a satisfying _fizz_ before taking a sip. "So then, what did you want?"

I frowned. "What did I…?"

"Say you'd flipped your folks the bird and done your own thing. What would you have majored in instead? If you'd even major in anything at all. Just… what did you want?"

My brow furrowed as I processed for a few heartbeats. "...I'm not sure, actually. Guess I never really thought about it." Then again, no one had ever really asked before. Not even me to myself.

He huffed out a laugh through his nose. "Sure ya have. Everyone has interests, dreams... and hey, you were a kid once. What did you wanna be when you grew up?"

"I…" Trailing off, I squinted towards the ceiling as if I'd somehow find what I was seeking somewhere up there. Unfortunately, no magical, clear-cut ceiling answers divining the secrets to my soul revealed themselves unto me. Drat.

What were my dreams and interests? Did I ever even have any? How pathetic was it that I had to ask myself that? That said however, my mind did strangely keep circling back around to that conversation I'd had with Rayne a few nights ago. I began slowly, "When I was younger, I… _did_ like taking part in musicals. Nothing huge, mind you, just for school and summer camp, things like that."

"That's still something though!" he nodded, face lighting up as he took another swig before putting the soda down. "And didn't I tell ya you should get into singing?"

Eyelids drooping, I gave a tiny scoff. "It's nothing, just a stupid, childish fantasy. My parents were quick to squash any such silly notions as I grew older, saying no daughter of theirs was going to be a failed singer or two-bit actor who never made it. It's not a job that's suitable for-"

"But whoever said anything about turning it into a job?" he cut me off, tipping his head to one side. "I mean yeah, that's one option, but it could also just be a hobby. You know, for fun. You could take a class or something, just to check it out... they offer drama courses at my university. Oh, and I know a couple people from the local community theater, I could check with them for you! Why not give it a shot?"

I grimaced, one hand shifting to rub my elbow. "I don't know…" Being on a stage again, performing in front of an audience, just... all those people… the mere thought already had me feeling the chill of anxiety clawing its way up into my chest.

"Look, I'll talk to those theatre friends of mine and also get you a catalog for next semester's courses. No pressure, but just so you have the information, ya know, in case you get curious," he smiled.

...I guess it wouldn't hurt... And I had to admit, a teeny part of me was drawn to the idea. However, a _much_ bigger part of me shriveled up in dread and made my stomach churn and knot up. "...thanks, but I don't think that's really-"

The loud, groaning creak of a door opening suddenly pierced the air. Lea paled as his head snapped over to the left towards the hallway, his eyes going round. Then he facepalmed and hissed out through grit teeth, "Fucking hell, not today!"

Puzzled at his reaction, I started to follow his gaze, "What are you-?"

His hand abruptly grabbed mine, immediately drawing my attention back to him as he whispered urgently, "Don't move. Don't even _breathe_."

What the…?

Despite my rising confusion, I did as I was told. I heard a slow _thud_ , _thud_ , _thud_ of footsteps approaching, felt movement behind me as something brushed passed and kept lumbering along. Was that… Saïx? If so, why then did it feel like we were reenacting a scene from a Jurassic Park movie with him the T-Rex and we the scared humans trying to hide in plain sight by going stock-still? I heard the steady footfall muffle now, presumably by the living room rug which is where it'd sounded like he'd been heading. Lea relaxed a little and I took it as a sign for me to do the same, now tentatively turning in my seat to glance over my shoulder.

Across the room stood a man with his back to us. He was tall, but I think Lea still may have had him beat by an inch or two. Long blue hair fell down well past his shoulder blades, bangs a chaotic mess on top - most likely bedhead if, like Lea suggested, the guy had been sleeping all day. A black tank top hugged his torso with grey camo sweatpants beneath it and feet bare. He'd come to a stop directly in front of the far wall and was now just… _staring_ at it.

Knitting my eyebrows together, I whispered, "What's he doing?"

Still keeping his voice down as well, Lea said, "Sleepwalking. Something he's done all his life, but it's been months since the last episode, so I was hoping we'd be in the clear today."

"Oh." I cocked my head. "...shouldn't we wake him?"

" _No_ ," he said quickly and with as much emphasis as he could muster in his hushed tone. "He goes totally berserk if you do. Believe me, it is _not_ pretty. Best just to stay out of his way and let him do his thing. He usually only wanders about for a few minutes before he heads back to his bed. Just-"

He hastily cut himself off as Saïx chose that second to whip around and face us. His eyes were closed and between them, a faded scar in the shape of an X slashed across the bridge of his nose. Lea's hand still on mine, I felt his grip tighten as Saïx started ambling in our direction. "Don't do it, don't do it, don't do it," I barely heard Lea chanting under his breath, watching Saïx like a hawk as he drew ever nearer.

He came to a lurching halt once more, this time next to the dining chair across the table from us. Lea scowled at him, muttering, "You're gonna do it, aren't you, you slumbering jackass? You're gonna play musical goddamn chairs." As if on cue, Saïx pulled out the seat and sat down. Watching him, it was almost eerie the way he seemed to look directly at us even though his eyes remained shut the whole time. A second later, he was rising again and moving counterclockwise towards the next chair closer to me. As he plopped down once more, Lea growled, "Damn it, of course. Of. Fucking. _Course_ you are, you big, dumb, sleep deprived- shit, _move!_ "

Lea leapt to his feet, yanking me up and out of my chair with him just as Saïx was about to yet again take a seat, this time on top of me. Lea backed up a few steps towards the kitchen island, me still in tow and our fingers now interlaced, his other hand miming pulling a zipper over his lips to me while his unblinking gaze never left his brother. A few seconds ticked by before Saïx was up and on the move again, his knee banging into Lea's chair, making the redhead cringe slightly. However, this only seemed to give Saïx pause for a beat before it too was sat upon.

I felt a tug on my arm and Lea started pulling me along, gingerly sidling over to circle the table in an attempt to put it between us and Saïx as we watched him stand back up and move onto the next seat. Then the next. And the next. He did this a few more times, with us all the while continuing to sneak around so as to stay opposite of him. At last, he seemed to lose interest in the dining area, turning his back to it and making his way into the kitchen.

Lea's eyes darted over to his bedroom door. Then to where Saïx had disappeared behind a column. Then back and forth a few more times. Then he murmured, "C'mon. My room. He always stays outta there."

I reached for the textbook with my free hand, "Just give me a sec to-"

"No time, leave it!" he hissed, making a run for it, giving me little choice but to stumble after him or be dragged. We were almost there, his door was just a few more feet away, but then-

" _Motherfu-"_ Lea quietly choked out as Saïx reemerged from the kitchen directly into our path. Immediately putting on the brakes, his feet scrabbled and skidded until he had shifted into reverse and backed up against the square column at the end of the kitchen island, yanking me backwards with him. He flattened himself against the surface and I did the same as Saïx shambled by hardly centimeters in front of us. Saïx then came to a stop once more, this time taking up post in the small corridor right smack dab in front of Lea's room.

Lea released a barely audible sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. Then, still maintaining a whisper, "Bad Saïx! Bad!" He flicked his hand in his roomie's direction a couple times, "Shoo! Shoo!"

Saïx, seemingly unperturbed, didn't budge.

...this had to be… without a doubt, hands down… the _weirdest_ social visit I'd ever been to.

Another minute passed of Lea unsuccessfully trying to persuade Saïx to get lost. Finally however, he did decide to move… straight towards us.

"Crap." Still leading me by the hand, Lea bolted around the corner and back into the dinette. The table, the chairs, the island, everything blurred past us. It was all happening so fast and before I knew it, Lea was jerking me into a hiding spot with him. And where, one might wonder, might that be?

Do the words 'itty bitty pantry space' ring any bells?

This, at least, solved one mystery. Lea could, in fact, fit in here. Not only that, there was even enough space left over for one (1) awkward Elsa to go in there with him. It was however, hrm... a rather tight squeeze, to say the least.

"This door opening in is really shit design," Lea grumbled, back pressed against said door and unable to close it as there was, quite simply, not enough room to do so. Not with us in the way anyhow.

He'd released my hand by now and I currently stood opposite him, my own spine uncomfortably pressing into the shelves of canned goods behind me. The gap between us was virtually non-existent to the point where every breath I took had my chest brushing up against his. Of course, that cinnamon scent of his that I was becoming oh so familiar with at this point was present and accounted for, invading my senses. And was it just me or was it getting a bit on the warm side in here? Poor ventilation. That had to be it. Yup.

I had no idea where to look. His face? Out of the question! Not in here, not this up close and personal, nope, nu-uh! I'd just have to settle for what was right in front of my nose.

Why good day, Mr Man Boob! We really have to stop meeting like this. Still looking as stately as ever, I see… wait! Oh gosh! What am I doing? I can't be staring at his frigging _man boobs!_ That's just… just so _unseemly!_ ...or is it? Is it technically okay for me to get an eyeful of man boob? If so, well that's a bit of a double standard now, isn't it? Better to be on the safe side and shift over to your charming neighbor here.

Hello there, Mr Bicep! Looking real good, real fit… have you been working out? Well whatever it is, it's doing wonders because let me tell you, you look nice enough to-

...ahem, readjusting focus once again, now landing on, um... Mr Collarbone! Yeah, Mr Collarbone here seemed innocent and harmless enough.

I think.

Clearing my throat, I asked, "So… he doesn't ever come in here during one of his episodes, right?"

"Never." I heard some shifting that I think was his head turning to look out the door, where there had yet to be any further movement. "...almost never."

"...how reassuring."

And silence reigned once again. This was so uncomfortable. I was dying. Come on, Elsa, say something else! Anything to break the stifling awkwardness! Say something… something nice! Yeah, like a compliment! Tell him… what a lovely home he has! No, too generic. Comment on the… smallness of his food closet! No no, jeez, that wasn't even a compliment. Point out the… stateliness of his man boobs! …oh dear god, _no!_ Dang it, Elsa, why are you so bad at this?!

"So, uh... what's a nice girl like you doing in a pantry like this?"

I blinked. Then, somehow, I finally found the courage to look up at him. He said nothing else, just gave me a tiny half-grin and a wink. And just like that, all that tension inside me cracked, shattered, and started to melt. Slowly but surely, a smile stretched at my lips and I gave a soft snort.

How did he do it? How did Lea always seem to know just what to say to put me at ease?

Shaking my head, I murmured, "I bet you use that line on all the ladies."

He hummed a low chuckle and made no other reply, just continued to stare down the few inches that separated us. Gosh, his eyes really were just the most beautiful shade of green, weren't they? Out of the corner of my peripheral, I saw his hand slowly rising until it hovered just beside my cheek. There he paused… hesitated… and then-

_Clunk!_

A sudden noise from outside and his hand had seized my shoulder tightly while his other shot up, pressing an index finger to his lips. I nodded and we both peered out into the dining room, waiting. We heard Saïx before we saw him, that very distinctive _thud, thud, thud_ of his footsteps drawing nearer. Then he plodded into view, pulling to a stop right outside the doorway and just stood there. Neither of us moved a muscle, remaining frozen like statues and holding our breaths as we watched and silently prayed.

After what felt like an eternity but in reality was probably only ten seconds, he started walking again, lumbering off out of our line of sight. We both exhaled and slumped, listening to his footfall fade. Then there was the blessed sound of a door creaking open followed by it clicking shut.

"Is that it?" I asked hopefully, voice still a whisper.

"Should be." He cautiously poked his head out to look around. "I mean, sometimes he gets crafty for a sleeping dude and will just open and close doors without going through them, but it's rare."

Good enough for me! I slipped out of the pantry and crossed the dinette, coming to a halt next to the sofa where I started to stretch a bit. Ahh, taste that sweet, sweet air of freedom! Whew, I had been starting to get a bit claustrophobic in-

"Look out!"

At Lea's warning, I spun around. Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the apartment, there Saïx was again, heading straight for me!

And I, being the total dummy that I am, decided to pick the absolute _worst_ time (aka now) to have a total deer in the headlights moment. My body was just not responding. Hello, legs? Anyone home? Now would be a really great time to jump out of the way! ...huh. No reply. Feet? Come in, feet, old buddies old pals! Saïx's getting real close here so if you could just, ya know, get a move on, that'd be swell! ...radio silence from that corner too. Well shoot, I thought as I squeezed my eyes shut, I guess this was it. The end of the road. The final curtains. Goodbye, cruel world. So long, and thanks for all the-

An abrupt force suddenly barreled into me from the side, pushing me out of Saïx's path at the last second and sending me tumbling over the arm of the couch where my back hit the seat cushions, decorative pillows flying everywhere. As my brain scrambled to catch up, I gradually became aware of the fact that there was a large weight on top of me, pinning me down. Warily, I peeked one eye open. Then the other. Then I blinked once. Twice. Then my face erupted into an inferno.

Because that weight on top of me? I'd figured out what it was. Or rather, _who_ it was.

Lea.

He must have thrown himself at me, knocking us both out of the way of danger and onto the sofa. And thus why he could now be found hovering over me, his hands on my wrists, holding them down to either side of my head as he propped himself up, his hips resting between my legs. His head was currently turned to the left as he watched over the backrest of the couch, probably tracking Saïx's movements. So engrossed was he in this that I don't think he was aware of the rather compromising position we were in right now.

Unlike me, who was very, _very_ aware.

I just stared up at him, unable to move, unable to think. My face grew hotter and hotter by the minute as my heart thundered in my ears. My breath hitched and my mouth grew dry. But the weird part? I… wasn't panicking. Oh sure, all the classic signs of panic were there, but that wasn't it. That wasn't what I was feeling. What was it then? This strange, alien emotion I felt invading my chest as I gazed up at him, making me feel all…

...kind of, sort of warm and fuzzy?

...wait.

This wasn't-

I wasn't-

Dear lord, it couldn't be I-

"There!" Lea puffed out a sigh, his shoulders sagging in relief. "I actually _saw_ him go back into his room just now, so we should be safe for real this time. Sorry 'bout all th-" The words died in his throat as now, at long last, he looked down at me. And you could all but hear the click in his brain. He froze, eyes wide. There was a long stretch where neither of us said or did anything. Then abruptly, "Shit, s-sorry!" He quickly released my wrists, shooting up onto his knees and hastily crossing his arms, jamming his hands into his armpits. "I didn't mean to- That is, I- This was just- This isn't how it-"

In his rush to stand, he slipped and fell off the couch, banging his head against the coffee table. I gasped, sitting up and reaching for him, "Are you okay?"

In a flash he was back on his feet, rubbing the fresh sore spot and blurting out, "Yup, no, I'm good! Just dandy! Just a small concussion, no biggie, nothing a bandaid or-" once again, the coffee table got the better of him and he stumbled backwards over it. He managed to catch himself however and chuckled weakly, "Heh… who put that stupid thing there? Anyway, I'll just go, uh, get myself patched up... in the bathroom! Yeah, be right back!" And with that, he practically blurred across the apartment and straight into the restroom, slamming the door shut behind him.

...well then.

I think that answered _that_.

Mission Not A Crush.

Because I think we can all agree now that Lea clearly and quite obviously…

...did _not_ have a crush on me.

I mean, come on, did you see the guy? He couldn't get away from me fast enough! All but tripping over himself to put as much distance between the two of us as he could. Probably desperate not to give me the wrong idea. Well message received, loud and clear.

However, this did complicate things a bit now though.

Because even though he didn't have a crush on me…

...I was now pretty sure I had a crush on him.

* * *

_**Author's Notes:** _ _Ahhh, this chapter… in which it's probably never been made more clear how really bad Elsa is at reading social cues from others xD Minor Fun Fact: Saïx's middle name in this is Isa, just like how Lea is technically our redhead's middle name as well. But unlike Lea, Saïx actually likes his first name so that's what he goes by. Another Minor Fun Fact: the stuff about the chainsaw was supposed to be a reference to Saïx's claymore from the video games - chainsaw is just the closest thing I could come up with xD And for those unfamiliar with this bit from the manga, there's a point where Saïx attacks Axel with his claymore and leaves him wounded right where Lea's scar is in this chapter, so another teeny lil reference, weeeee! Another ANOTHER Minor Fun Fact: Lea's outfit, if you didn't recognize it, was based on his outfit at the end of KH3! Elsa's outfit… was not based on anything, it just sounded like something I thought she'd look cute in xD_

_Thank you so much for reading, especially to those of you who have left a kudos and shared with me your thoughts and feelings on this story so far! Remember, feedback is not only welcome, but highly encouraged and super appreciated!_


	13. Chapter 13

"Why are you stuffing the freezers full of Sven plushies?"

My arm stopped mid-motion and I blinked owlishly up at Frozone from where I was kneeled down on the Ice Palace floor in front of said freezers.

...I wasn't, was I?

Looking down at my hand and, more specifically, what was in it, I winced.

Yes. Yes, I was.

Fudge.

Hastily scooping them all off the stacks of ice cream bars and back out onto the tiled ground beneath me, I shot up to my feet, hiding one behind my back with a tiny, awkward laugh . "Oh! That! Yes, uh… I was just… trying to give them a… nice… frosty sheen! To, erm, make them more… authentic? Yeah, you know, since reindeer are from the frozen north, or, ah… somewhere… like that, heh!"

His eyelids drooped. "I… see."

"Oh yeah, chilled plushies are the new 'It' thing." Really? This was the hill I was choosing to die on? Apparently it was. I shoved the little caribou I was still holding into his face now, showing off the icy glaze to its fur coat as I pressed on, "They're all the rage in, er… Norway."

"Norway. Right," Frozone deadpanned as he gingerly took the proffered doll by one of its antlers. Don't think he was quite convinced. Just a wild guess here. "Call me old fashioned but for now, let's just keep all the plushes at room temperature, shall we? And please, run any other... _innovations_ you might have by me first," he flashed me a thousand watt smile, "sound good?"

I returned it with a shaky one of my own, "A-absolutely!" He nodded and as soon as he turned his back on me, my grin faded into a grimace and I buried my face in my hands.

This hadn't been the first of my little "innovations" since starting my shift today.

Other winners included almost dumping used popsicle sticks instead of ice cream into the soft serve/milkshake machine, trying to pile scoops onto straws instead of cones, and giving taste spoons out as change for payment.

Yeah, that particular customer hadn't been exactly thrilled by the last one. Apparently the world just wasn't ready for my groundbreaking and avant-gard new form of currency.

But really, I just wasn't paying attention. I couldn't help it! I was too distracted and completely unable to focus. Hadn't been able to since the study session had ended yesterday. I'd hadn't even gotten a wink of sleep last night, merely tossed and turned while my thoughts had kept running round and round in endless circles.

I just… still couldn't get over it.

Me.

Having a crush.

My brain wouldn't wrap around it. I quite simply did not grok.

For starters, was I forgetting the six year relationship I had just been in? The fiancé I'd left at the altar a few short weeks ago? What was he, chopped liver? How could I just start having… _feelings_ or whatever for someone else so quickly? I mean, okay sure, I hadn't been in love with the guy, but still… wasn't this breaking the rules or something? Committing some sort of romantic faux pas? Spurning basic etiquette in matters of the heart?

Perhaps I should take a step back and look at this all more objectively. Maybe I was just confused and didn't really know _what_ it was I was actually feeling. Just what were these emotions exactly, anyway? I'd definitely never felt them before, and certainly not for my ex. But just because these sentiments were new and I was experiencing them only in the presence of a certain boy, didn't necessarily mean they were, um… _affectionate_ in nature, right?

Yeah, this didn't have to be a crush. I was only jumping to conclusions! Lea was a great guy, absolutely, and I liked him, you know, as a _person_ , but that didn't mean that I, like… _like-liked_ him! I barely even knew him, for crying out loud! Granted, I _did_ know he was kind, sweet, caring, funny, clever, made me feel comfortable around him (that in itself was kind of a miracle), and was a cutie-patootie to boot, but that didn't-

Wait.

Back up.

What was that word I'd just used?

...cutie...patootie?

Bleh, where had _that_ even come from?

_That's the thing about crushes, boo. You don't have to really know the person, just think they're a total cutie-patootie!_

I shuddered as my roomie's earlier words came back to haunt me.

Thanks, Ghost of Rayne Past, this was exactly what I _didn't_ need right now.

Okay, fine, so maybe it was a crush. I don't know! This was new territory for me! And even it was, so what? It's not like it mattered. Lea wasn't dating at the moment. Girls were a distraction, he was focusing on his school work, yada yada, that whole thing. And say, for the sake of argument, that weren't the case. It's not like I'd ever have the guts to…

...what?

Ask him out?

Pffft, _me?_ Elsa, Queen of the Chickens?

Please!

And even if I went all the way to the magical land of Oz to ask the great wizard himself for some courage so I could so much as even begin to consider acting on these alleged feelings I may or may not have, Lea didn't see me like that. He'd made that _abundantly_ clear. When he'd finally ended his self-imposed exile to the bathroom yesterday, the sheer amount of awkward that had filled the room after that had been enough to suffocate. And even when we did eventually manage to fall into a comfortable study rhythm once more, it didn't slip my notice that he'd always seemed to try and keep the table between the two of us for the rest of the evening.

So really, it was all moot. Lea wasn't interested. Which was okay, because I wasn't interested in him either! ...or maybe I was, but that was beside the point! The _point_ was that this crush, if that's even really what it was, was a non-entity. Nothing that was ever going to be acted on. Nothing worth losing my head over like this, getting all-

"Elsa?" A throat cleared nearby and I glanced over my shoulder to see Frozone, back once more, now complete with a deadpan look. He held up a metal scoop. "...try this maybe?"

I stared blankly from it to him.

...crud, had I done it again?

I looked down at my hands and immediately got my answer.

Indeed I had. I'd zoned out for the umpteenth time and gone on auto-pilot. And my auto-pilot? Sucked. Big time.

Last I'd checked before I'd gone all space cadet, I'd been cleaning up the pile of Svens off the floor and hanging them back up on their hooks. Now that I was tuning back in, it seemed I'd wrapped up that task and had since moved on to assisting a customer. That customer had requested scooped ice cream on a cone - or so the hope would be, given I had a cone in hand (good start) and had opened the glass display to the refrigerated tubs. However, I'd apparently been about to start scooping… with nothing but my _bare friggin' fingers_.

I looked back at Frozone, plastering on a smile. "Oh, this? This is just, ah… well you know, studies have linked the use of traditional ice cream scoops back to, er… male… pattern baldness!" Ugh, just stop already, mouth, you're not helping! Do you _not_ remember how bad at lying we are?! "Something about the way the, um, the metal... _alloy_ interacts with the sugar is just… just yeah, bad juju or something." What I wouldn't give for a muzzle right now. What even were the words coming out of my mouth anymore? "Nine out of ten experts agree that, ah, scooping with just your hands is the safest, healthiest option, so… there you go! A great lil tip there for you, so yeah… you're welcome!"

"...I think I'll take my chances," he said, tone flat. Then he was pulling me to one side, out of earshot of the patron, "Okay, girl, you clearly got a lot going on up in there at the moment," he tapped me on the forehead a couple times, "so tell you what. I'll finish helping this customer while you gather the rest of the scoops, take them to the back for a rinse and use that minute to clear your head. Alright?"

Straightening up slightly, I gave a quick nod. "Yes sir."

"Atta girl." A quick pat on my shoulder from him, then he was moving off to greet the customer.

Giving myself a small shake, I then quickly set to work collecting the steel utensils. Focus. _Focus!_ This wasn't the time to be twisting myself up in knots over something so inane. There'd be plenty of time for such self-indulgent stupidity once I got back home later tonight. For now, think ice cream. That's it, pure and simple. Ice cream. Live it, breathe it, bleed it. Ice cream. Nothing else existed. Nope, not a thing. Most definitely not-

My gaze chose that second to flick up, glancing towards the other side of the food court. Yup, you guessed it. A certain redhead was currently on shift at a certain pizzeria across the way. Lea was back at it with the pizza dough sorcery, spinning and tossing one on each hand. By chance, our eyes met and to my surprise, gone was any trace of lingering weirdness from yesterday. In fact, his face brightened as he flung one disc up into the air, freeing up that hand to give me an energetic wave.

There was a tiny spasm in my chest and I spun on my heel, turning my back to him.

We've been hit by friendly fire, captain! Status report.

Eyes? Wide and unblinking.

Hands? Strangling metal scoops while simultaneously pressing them against my hammering chest.

Face? Roasting like a honey-glazed ham on Christmas Eve.

...hold up… gah, what the heck was I doing?! Why was I freaking out? Weren't we past all this already, Elsa? Hadn't we left that awkward stage of your friendship with Lea in the dust behind us long ago? So what if you maybe, kind of, sort of had a teensy-weensy crush on him now? This wasn't grade school, you were a damn grown-up! So start acting like one, turn your butt around and wave back at him already!

So I did. I squared my shoulders, put on my best smile, did another about-face and waved back.

...and in my enthusiasm in said wave, I managed to smack myself in the face with the handful of metal scoops I was still holding.

Nailed it.

"I saw that," I heard Frozone's dry voice behind me and I whipped around to discover him all done with the customer and now standing there, arms crossed. "Don't tell me, let me guess. Whatever hang-up is going on with you has to do with that pizza boy." Pause to quirk an eyebrow. "Again."

I gulped, eyes darting to the left. "Heh… pizza what? Boy who?" Crickets. "I'm-going-to-go-wash-these-now-okay-bye!" I blurted out like it was all one word and bolted through the door to the back.

Whew! Dodged that bullet like Neo!

A few minutes later I was walking back out to the storefront, freshly cleaned utensils in hand and hoping Frozone wasn't going to feel like picking up exactly where we'd left off in that conversation. Seemed I was in luck, for all he said was, "I'm gonna go on my lunch break now. Should be slow since the rush just died down." He gave me a pointed look, "I trust you're all good now and can handle things on your own for a bit?"

Relieved, I gave a nod as I started putting the scoops back in their spots. "You can count on me."

"That's what I like to hear," he grinned, holding his fist out for a bump and I only hesitated for a second before lightly tapping my knuckles to his. "Alright, be back soon!"

I watched him go, then finished returning all the utensils before taking up position behind the cash register. Okay, you can do this. Don't let your mind wander. Stay in the here and now. Look around and pick something to concentrate on, keep you grounded. Like that plastic spork underneath that one table out there, dropped and forgotten, yet to be swept up by a roaming janitor. Or… that grey tabby at the Lucky Cat Café, what was his name again... Chirithy? Yeah, that sounded right. Or at Anna over there, bursting through the double doors, running straight for me as if her life depended on it and-

...wait, what?

Anna?

What was she doing here?

And why did she look so frantic and horrified?

When she got close enough, I began, "Anna, why are you-"

"Sis!" she shouted, stumbling to a stop in front of me and slamming both her hands down next to the register. "Shush! Listen!" She looked like she'd just ran a marathon and was out of breath, her every word punctuated with a pant or a wheeze. "Back… Back at- Overheard... Talking... Yelling… Mall ice cream! Mad, so… so friggin' mad! Drove… drove here! Quick as I- Right behind me! Just barely got here before… before-" She suddenly hissed in pain and pulled one knee up to her chest, grabbing her foot in both hands and bouncing up and down on the other. "Frick! Owie, charley horse! Charley horse!"

Figures her super human power to babble would fail her in the hour of her greatest need.

At a loss, I reached out across the counter to rest a hand on her arm, "Anna, slow down. Breathe. I can't understand you, you're missing some nouns there. What are you trying to tell me? Why-"

Using the countertop for support now, she grabbed me by the shirt and yanked me closer, bringing us nose to nose. "He's here! He _knows!_ "

My blood ran cold.

I swallowed hard. "H-he? He w-who?"

Please, please, _please_ don't say-

"The Duke!"

...oh.

Then it wasn't-

Well that's a relief!

Wait… Oh… Oh dear god, no… no, it most definitely was _not!_

Those food court's doors banged open a second time now and in he marched, proud and regal in all his big-nosed, bad combover, bushy mustachioed glory.

Weselton "The Duke" Fryse.

Aka my great uncle.

He and I weren't exactly on the best of terms, and that was even before I went all AWOL on my wedding day. Me being the eldest and heir to his nephew's fortune, he'd never quite forgiven me for not being born male. But I mean, come on pal, that was over twenty-two years ago - let it go already! The man was the very definition of dotty old coot and insufferable windbag. And for someone who talks so much, he surprisingly says very little. Mostly antiquated opinions and unsolicited advice, every last bit of it wrong and holier-than-thou. For all his ramblings over the decades, we had yet to even hear the story of where his nickname had even come from. Did it have to do with the esteemed university? Had the Queen of England herself actually honored him with the title? Did he have a reputation back in his day of settling matters by "duking" it out? Who knew? And honestly, who really cared?

But none of that mattered at the moment. What mattered was that he was here. That he knew. And if he knew, that meant mother and father knew. And if _they_ knew… _he_ probably knew as well. You know. _Him_. My ex.

It was official.

This was it.

The Worst Day Ever.

My chest seized. I couldn't breathe. Couldn't move. All I could do was watch in abject terror as the Duke drew ever nearer, head held high and stern, bespectacled glare burning holes into me. In fact, I think those glasses were even magnifying the sheer, seething rage contained within that scowl of his and turning it into a straight up death ray.

So this was how I was going to die, huh? Funny. I'd always thought clowns would be the ones to do me in. Well… this _was_ the Duke after all, so… close enough.

How had he even found out? Anna never would have told him. How on earth…?

He at last came to a halt before me, hands folding behind his back. He spared a brief, unamused glance out of the corner of his eyes towards Anna, gracing her with a sniff of disdain. She merely glowered back at him. Then his full attention was on me. "Well, well, young lady," he intoned coldly, staring down his nose at me, "just what do you have to say for yourself?"

Okay, Elsa, easy there. You're going to get through this. Put away the shaky knees and sweaty palms. You're calm. You're collected. Just rationally and eloquently explain yourself to him so he sees your side of it and he'll understand and be on his way.

Clenching and unclenching my hands, took a deep breath and opened my mouth.

Calm. Rational. Eloquent.

Here we go.

"I, um… hm… guh… nhg?"

Well done.

"...quite." His mustache twitched dangerously from side to side. "Please then, allow me. You ran out on your wedding. Wasted your father's valuable time and munny. Broke your poor mother's heart. Embarrassed your whole family. Disrespected your _betrothed's_ family. Disappeared with nary a trace, not so much as one word from you for a month, worrying us all sick... All for what? _This?_ " His narrowed gaze gave the Ice Palace in its entirety a once over and, clearly, found it wanting. "...a ramshackle ice cream booth in a mall. A _mall_ of all places!" he roared and I flinched, but said nothing.

I couldn't. Words had abandoned me. Panic had paralyzed me. All I could do was shrink more and more in on myself, wishing for the ground to swallow me up as his lecture turned into a full on tirade now.

"Working like some lowly, middle-class plebeian! Living heaven only knows where! Fraternizing with commoners! Have you no shame, child?! You little ingrate, you… you little _monster!_ I always knew you'd be the downfall of this family! Of all the selfish, witless, deplorable, irresponsible, contemptible, impudent-"

"Cram it, Weaseltown!" Anna spat out, putting herself between me and him.

Oh great. Now here my baby sister came to fight my battles for me while I cowered behind her. My humiliation was complete.

He took a step back, nostrils flaring and mustache flapping violently as he huffed and puffed. "It's Weselton! The Duke to _you_ , you spoiled brat! I always said your father should've used a firmer hand with you! You've grown wild! You're a disgrace! The both of you are! Why, if your father were here right this second, he'd-"

"Yeah, well he's not!" Anna got in his face now, staring him down as she stabbed a finger into his chest, " _You_ are! Why is that, I wonder? Where is Daddy Dearest anyway?"

Talk! Say something, damn it! Please, just stop standing here doing nothing like a total idiot!

"Such impudence!" he slapped her hand away. "He's back at home, tending to your grief-stricken mother who is inconsolable, simply _inconsolable_ upon learning the truth! Neither of them could bring themselves to come down here and bear the wretched sight of their eldest! So I took it upon myself after breaking the dreadful news to-"

She stamped her foot and snarled, "So it was you! Oh I bet you just couldn't wait to go and tattle to our parents as soon as you knew! Bet you were just positively _giddy_. How'd you do it? How'd you find out, you big weasel?!"

Their shouting match was causing a scene. People were beginning to stare. Including… I reluctantly dragged my gaze over towards the Pizza Planet… yup. There Lea was with a frown and one eyebrow cocked as he set the dough aside to watch this bit of drama unfold.

For the love of all that is good and mortifying, just end me. End me now. Please.

The Duke stiffened, face blotchy with barely restrained fury. "Hold your vile tongue, you snot-nosed whelp! I'll have you know the information was as good as mine the minute you told us she'd texted you. I knew if I hired a man to follow you, you'd lead us straight to her."

Anna gaped, "You had someone friggin' _spying_ on me?!"

"And rightly so!" he harrumphed, puffing out his chest. "The scandals he reported back to me, why, I nearly died from disgrace! Carousing in a seedy, two-bit pub! Mingling with the filthy yokels! Prancing about on some stage, making an utter mockery out of yourself! Not to mention naught but days later, rendezvousing in secret at some mongrel's hovel and holing up in there with him for hours, you, you, you _trollop!_ "

My stomach fell further and further, my face paler and paler with every word. Dear lord, he _knew_ about all of that?! And what was he even talking about, holing up with- wait, was he talking when I'd helped Lea study? There'd been someone there, some sort of, what… private investigator or something, watching me the whole time? Might _still_ be watching me, even now?

Oh crud, now Lea was over his counter and heading this way. Turn back, you kind, brave, naive fool! You know not the powers you seek to tangle with! Back! Back, I say! Back to the craft of pizza and outer space from whence thou came!

"So the frick what?!" my sister gave a scoff. "Elsa can do _whatever_ with _whoever_ she wants! As far as I'm concerned, what she does with her life is none of your business, you old fart!"

"I make it my business when her actions ruin this family's good name! Now enough of this charade, this, this absolute _farce_!" The Duke looked past Anna to point at me, "You have a duty to perform, young lady! A responsibility to uphold! You will come home this _instant_ and marry-"

Shoving his arm away, Anna snapped, "She will _not!_ Don't you understand? She doesn't love him, she wasn't happy!"

This was getting out of hand. Somehow, someway, whatever spell that kept me frozen abruptly broke. My feet were suddenly on the move and I was running out from behind the counter. I had to do something. Get between them, break this up, I don't know… just _something_.

The Duke sneered, "As if love and happiness matter in a marriage, bah!"

"They do when it's… it's…" she frowned in thought for a split second, then her face broke out into a triumphant grin. "When it's _true_ love!"

A huff of a derisive laugh. "True love? Now you're just spouting off nonsense, pure hogwash!"

"Nu uh! In fact," there was now a sly gleam to her eye, "Elsa's already met her true love."

"She's what?!"

I've _what?_

At her words, I staggered and tripped, nearly colliding into my sister. Anna grabbed my shoulders, keeping me upright. Then she gave me a wink, grin twitching wider before looking back at our great uncle, "What'd you think? That that 'secret rendezvous' as you put it was... what? Just a fling? A one night stand? A booty call? Ha! Well jokes on you, Weaseltown, cuz that was her boyfriend!"

"Her what?!"

My _what?_

"That's right!" she cackled now as the Duke spluttered and wheeze, his hand going to his chest. "They're in love! Have been for a while now! She… oh! She ran away from her wedding to just be with him! Yeah!"

Anna, what are you doing? Anna, please stop!

"Hey, what seems to be the problem here?" Lea stepped up to join us just then.

Turn back! Back, I say!

"Well if it isn't the man of the hour!" Anna beamed at him, to which he just merely blinked and tipped his head to one side. "Weaseltown, allow me to introduce you to," she shoved me at Lea who caught me as I crashed into his chest, both eyebrows shooting up his forehead in confusion, "Elsa's one and only… her beau, her lover, her boyfriend and one true love! They make just the _cutest_ couple, don'tcha think?"

"Wha- huh?!" Lea's grip on me tightened, his eyes widened and his face flushed bright red.

As for the Duke? Well, I suppose he handled it about as well as could be expected.

He fainted.

* * *

_**Author's Note:** _ _Anna, hon, no… Anna why? The way that girl's mind works sometimes, I swear… Lol! Thank you so much for reading, especially to those of you who have left a kudos and shared with me your thoughts and feelings on this story so far! Remember, feedback is not only welcome, but highly encouraged and super appreciated!_


	14. Chapter 14

I consider myself a pacifist. A live-and-let-live sort of person. I wouldn't hurt a flea.

"Oh Anna? Precious baby sister of mine, apple of my eye, fruit of my heart… would you come over here for a moment? I want to show you something."

When it comes to Anna however…

"Yes Elsa? Dearest big sis, uh… pop-tart of my soul, chicken nugget of my… nose. Might I first ask what precisely it is that you wish to show me?"

Anna I would hurt. Especially when she royally deserves it.

"My fingers wrapping around your throat and squeezing. Hard."

"Ya know, as fun as that _does_ sound, I think I'll pass."

"Come here, you little-" I snarled, dropping the sugary-sweet facade and making a lunge for her over the couch that she'd been keeping between me and her. She squeaked and jumped backwards out of my reach, nearly toppling over Rayne's coffee table but with a flail of her arms, barely managed to stay upright. I banged my fist against a cushion, narrowing my eyes on her and huffing through my nose. Then I bolted to the left and Anna immediately took off to the right, staying ahead of me as I chased her around the sofa a couple times. From the kitchen, Rayne, Riku, and Lea observed silently from their seats around the dining table as they munched on some popcorn.

The two of us came to a stop after a few laps, still (much to my annoyance) on opposite sides of the couch. Panting to catch her breath, Anna snapped, "I dunno _why_ you're so frigging mad even, I was only trying to _help!_ "

"Help?!" I scoffed, placing my hands on the backrest of the sofa, my fingers crushing the pillows. "You nearly gave Uncle Weselton a heart attack and killed him!"

She looked away, razzing her tongue. "Eh, I woulda been doing the world a favor."

"Anna!"

"What?! The old geezer was fine, wasn't he? Only blacked out for like a minute tops! Then he was back up and marching out of the place in a huff all," she lifted her nose into the air and her voice got deep and snooty in her best impersonation of the Duke as she stabbed an index finger up high, "when your father and mother hear about this, young lady, there will be a reckoning! You hear me? A reckoning! Blah, blah, blah, my nose is too big and my combover looks like hamster roadkill!"

My eyelids drooped. "...his exact words."

"Oh yeah, verbatim."

Growling, I suddenly vaulted over the furniture-turned-barricade in an attempt to catch her off guard, but she was ready for the surprise attack. In the blink of an eye, she'd turned, bounded over the coffee table and darted into the bathroom, slamming the door shut in my face just as I got to it. I jiggled the knob, but it was already locked. Banging both my hands against the wooden surface, I yelled, "Dammit, Anna, you can't hide in there forever!"

"I can and I will!" her voice came back muffled from the other side. "I got running water in here, baby! I can stay hydrated, shower… just you watch, I'll survive in here for years!"

I crossed my arms, scowling at the door. "And what, pray tell, are you going to do for food?"

There was a long pause. Then, "...Floss! That's right! I'll slurp it up like spaghetti! Shampoo will be my sauce and crushed-up toilet paper will be my meatballs!"

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I grumbled, "You can't eat toiletries, Anna."

"Try and stop me!"

I twitched. Then I reeled an arm back, zero-point-two seconds away from breaking the stupid door down through sheer force of will alone, but a hand on my elbow brought me up short. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw it was Rayne. She greeted me with a small, gentle smile, "How 'bout we have a seat and cool off for a second, huh sweetpea?"

Her soft but firm grasp on my arm pulled me towards the kitchen, my feet dragging while I glared back at the bathroom door as I was taken away from it. When we reached the dining table, she put her hands on my shoulders and pushed down, forcing me to take a seat in one of the chairs.

Right next to Lea.

Which had the unfortunate side effect of reminding me of his existence. That he'd been here this whole time, watching me spend the last ten minutes or so trying to murder my own sister.

"Oh gosh, you must think I'm a crazy person," I groaned, burying my face in my hands as Rayne took a seat on my other side.

I heard him chuckle and I peeked out between my fingers to see him flashing me a grin. "Not at all! I actually kind of like seeing this side of you, El. It's fun!"

For a guy who'd just had it sprung on him that he was my boyfriend and one true love, he was taking it with a surprising amount of ease and good humor. That is, once he'd gotten past the initial shock, of course. In fact, now that he knew what was going on, he even seemed to find the whole thing funny. I wished I could laugh so easily at this big mess Anna had put us in.

Speaking of the little brat, as soon as the Duke had stormed out of the mall, she'd made a pretty hasty retreat herself, saying she'd see me back at my apartment. I think she'd hoped Rayne would keep me from slaughtering her. Unfortunately for her, it seemed my roomie was less interested in keeping her alive and more so in just watching the live entertainment unfold in her own living room.

Lea averted his gaze now, rubbing the nape of his neck, "So… a fiancé, huh?"

Oh. Right. Then there was the fact that he was just finding out about all of _that_ too.

Feeling a tiny blush creep up into my face, I quickly hid it by looking down at my fingers fidgeting in my lap. "Uh… no. I mean, yes. I mean, not... anymore, that is. More of an… _ex_ -fiancé now."

"That's good." Even as the words were leaving his mouth, he stiffened and winced, tacking on hastily, "Just cuz… ya know, sounds like a relationship you, er… didn't wanna be in! So it's good you got out of it! That's all, heh!"

"Yeah, I suppose." Sighing, I shook my head, "In any case, I am _so_ sorry Anna dragged you into all of this. I don't know what she was thinking! Only trying to help," I repeated her words with a roll of my eyes, "ha! Her _help_ ," air quotes, "was a total disaster. A trainwreck, a catastrophe! We're talking the Titanic meets the Hindenburg! We're talking-"

"Hey, hey, it's okay, really!" Lea placed a comforting hand on my arm. "I don't mind. And I'm sure it's not all that terrible."

With a grimace, I said, "You don't understand. It was already bad enough that this is how my parents found out where I disappeared to and what I've been doing. But now Anna's made things a thousand times worse! I can't put off talking to them anymore. Now I _have_ to go see them and, on top of trying to make them understand why I ran away, I have to explain that Anna was just making things up and-"

"Or," Rayne cut me off, reaching for the bowl of popcorn in the center of the table, "you could just, ya know…" she tossed one into her mouth with a shrug, "...not."

I stared at her blankly. "...I'm sorry, what now?"

"You heard me."

"You want me to _lie_ to them?!" I asked aghast as I tugged at my hair, still in its ponytail from work.

"Well, not so much lie as…" she paused, pursing her lips to one side for a second before her eyes lit up, "as let them believe something that is not wholly true and just not correcting them!"

I gaped at her.

Apparently, Anna's lunacy was contagious now.

"...this is insane. Riku, tell your wife the words that are coming out of her mouth are _insane_."

He choked on the puffed kernel he'd just popped into his mouth. Coughing and thumping his chest with a fist, he then waved his hands back and forth in front of him, "Oh-ho, no, I'm staying out of this. I'm just here for the snacks." I narrowed my eyes at him and he shrugged. "What, it's not like I'm going to disagree with the future mother of my child."

Lea sniggered and made a whip noise with the accompanying hand motion. Rayne chucked some popcorn at his face while Riku merely raised a glass in his direction, "Damn right, and happily so."

"Come on, this is serious!" I turned my frown on Rayne, "In what _possible_ universe does letting my parents think I ran out on my wedding to be with some random mystery guy help this situation even remotely?"

She smirked, "Think about it, boo. Your uncle has probably already told them by now. The damage is done. In fact, it might do more harm than good at this point if you tried to backtrack and tell them you deceived them by-"

"That _I_ deceived them?!" I shot up to my feet, crisscrossing my arms over my chest and swiping my hands out wide in opposite directions, "No, no, _no_ , this was all Anna! She was the one to make it all up, I had _nothing_ to do with it!"

"Why then didn't you tell your uncle that before he left?" she cocked her head, arching an eyebrow at me.

I blanched before glancing away, my fingers absently drifting up to tangle themselves into the tip of my ponytail once more. "Well, I… that is, he just left so... so quickly! I didn't have time to, uh... a-and he was so mad, I couldn't get a- I mean, I was still getting over the… the _shock_ of what Anna had- and then I was just so relieved the Duke was o-okay that I just didn't even think to-"

"Mm-hm," Rayne's eyelids drooped. "Sweetie, if you can't even explain yourself to me, how do you hope to even have a snowball's chance in hell of making a case to your parents?"

I collapsed back down into the chair with a heavy thud and slumped forward, elbows on the table and fingernails raking into my scalp, "Oh gosh, I'm an accomplice. I'm complicit in Anna's harebrained scheme. This is my nightmare."

I felt Rayne's hand patting me on the head. "There, there. It's not the end of the world. And as… _misguided_ as Anna's attempt to help was, she may have actually done you a bit of a favor."

I looked up at her incredulously. "How?"

"Alright," she propped her chin in her palm, "say you went to your parents right now and told them the truth. There is no other guy. You're just not in love with your ex and don't want to marry him, plain and simple. What would they do? Accept it and be happy for you?"

"Of course they-" my eyes widened as the words died on my tongue. Then I was slowly shaking my head, "...no. No they wouldn't. Actually, they'd probably still try to force me to marry him."

She wrinkled her nose with a frown, "Thought so. Cuz there's no obstacle right now. Nothing standing in the way except a measly thing like your feelings. And in the silver-spooned world you come from, I imagine feelings are a luxury."

A heavy sigh escaped me, "More or less."

"But thanks to Anna, you now have a big mountain of a bad-boy boyfriend-shaped obstacle that makes it a lot harder for them to argue with. Ta-da!" she swept her hands out in a flourish towards Lea, whose head rocked back as he blinked.

Scratching a spot behind his ear with a tiny laugh, he said, "Oh c'mon, Raindrop! Bad boy? I dunno about that. Maybe a year or two ago..."

"Yeah yeah," her hand batted the air dismissively, "you've turned over a new leaf or whatever, but her folks don't know that! And with that wild red mane of yours and all that guyliner, you can still easily look the part. We don't need some nice-guy goody two-shoes who looks like he'll just let Momma and Poppa Fryse walk all over him. We need someone who'll scare 'em and make them back off and let Elsa live her own life."

"Exactly!" Anna's voice suddenly rang out and we all turned in our seats to find she'd crept out of the safety of the bathroom at some point to stealthily eavesdrop from behind the couch. "That's what I was friggin' _trying_ to explain before you so _rudely_ \- eep!" she yelped as I stood up from my chair. Then she all but blurred back into the restroom, banging the door closed behind her again.

Damn right, you better run, twerp.

But she couldn't escape my righteous fury for long. The little punk had to be brought to justice. To do that however, I'd need to lure her out of hiding first.

...and I knew just how to do it too.

A wicked smirk tugging at my lips now, I turned and stomped across the kitchen, calling out loudly, "I'm too angry to keep talking about this right now! I'm taking a walk to clear my head!"

Reaching the front door, I opened it before slamming it shut again with me still inside the apartment. I spun back around to face the others, holding an index finger up to my lips.

Be vewy, vewy quiet. I'm hunting Annas.

My eyes darted over to the bathroom door. It didn't budge. Clever girl, not being so quick to fall for the oldest trick in the book. After a few seconds of zero movement from the target, I then twirled my finger to the other three, gesturing for them to get conversation rolling again as I used my other hand to quietly slip my shoes off.

Taking the cue, Lea's gaze drifted from me over to Rayne, "So, uh… what are we thinking here? Just put on a lil show for Mom and Pop, one and done and we're out?"

"That might not be enough," she replied as I gave them all the thumbs up before swiftly sneaking past them back towards the living room, my bare feet silent against the floor. "Think about it. Sounds like Elsa's deranged grunkle hired someone to follow her for days. For all we know, her shadow might still be keeping tabs on her at the old coot's request. If you two don't look and act like a googly-eyed couple twenty-four seven, then the jig is up. He'll know Anna made up the whole thing. No, I think what we need here is a long con. To sell this, you two are gonna have to be all lovey-dovey out in public, around the mall, everywhere and at all times."

I'm sorry, we have to _what_ now?!

I stumbled, but managed to steady myself and stay upright, thankfully all still without making a sound. I whipped around to glare at Rayne. She grinned and winked back, waggling her fingers at me in a sly little wave.

My murder list now officially had two names on it.

Rayne was just lucky Anna was more of a priority at the moment. I'd just have to deal with my evil roomie and the inane turn to this whole conversation later. Heaving a soft sigh through my nose, I turned my back on them once more and finished stealthing my way towards my bedroom. Once inside, I closed my door most of the way, leaving it open a sliver of a crack for me to peek out through.

And now the deadly hunter hides in wait for her prey to boldly but unwisely venture forth into the open once more.

"I dunno," Lea rubbed a knuckle to his chin, "would people buy that? I mean, we haven't exactly been acting all couply up until now. Wouldn't it be weird if we just started to randomly out of the blue? Especially considering the story's that she apparently ran out on the wedding to be with me."

She shrugged, "Easily explained. Clearly, Elsa was just worried about word of her torrid affair getting back to her ex. She didn't want him to feel like you two were just flaunting your love and rubbing his nose in it. She was trying to keep it on the DL for the sake of his feelings. But now that the cat's out of the bag, there's no reason to sneak around anymore. You two can now sing your love from the rooftops for all the world to see!"

My left eye ticked.

There would be so much killing before this day was done.

I'd paint the walls of this apartment red with the blood of my sister and my best friend.

I was pulled from my homicidal yet decorative thoughts as I heard a tiny, almost inaudible creak beyond my door from somewhere off to the right. I held my breath. Could it be? Had the mouse braved leaving her hidey-hole? Given my sight into the living room was very limited currently, I had no visual on her yet, so all I could do was wait and hope.

Riku chimed in now, "Honestly, I don't even think most people will be all that surprised. Sora and Kairi actually even had a bet going on between them. He thought it wouldn't be long before you two start dating."

"And Kairi didn't think so?"

"No, _she_ thought you already were."

There! Anna slowly tiptoed into view as she made her way towards the kitchen, her back to me and head swishing to and fro with every careful step she took. Probably sensing a trap, but unable to spot me so deciding to risk it.

Little fool.

Silently pulling my own door open just enough for me to slip back out, I started creeping up behind her.

Lea snorted, "Alright, but some people know for a _fact_ we were never dating. Take the kiddos for example. You think we're gonna be able to pull the wool over their eyes? Maybe they should be let in on the secret."

"Nope," Rayne leaned forward, folding her arms together on top of the table. "This shouldn't leave this room. If the wicked grunkle does still have a tail on Elsa, what if they start discreetly asking questions around the mall? Trust me, the less people know you two are only pretend dating, the better. Besides, you so sure that's what Xion and Rox think? Is it really so hard to believe you were keeping your blossoming romance a secret, even from them? I mean, come on, don't forget what happened on Elsa's first day of work now."

I froze mid-step a few scant inches behind Anna now, my eyes growing round.

Fudge.

Lea cleared his throat into his fist, eyes darting about. "I'm... not sure I entirely know what you're referring to."

I sure as heck did. And without a doubt, he did too. He was probably just trying to be a gentleman.

Rayne, on the other hand, had no such decorum.

"Oh really?" she smirked. Feeling the blood draining from my face, I started swiping my hand back and forth across my throat, rapidly shaking my head at her. Rayne either did not see or did not care. My guess? The latter. "Then allow me to refresh your memory." Now I started gesticulating wildly for her to cram it, my arms frantically but silently flailing about like a mime caught in a blender. Still Rayne pressed on, "You. Her. Lip-locked in the food court within ten seconds of first laying eyes on one another. Ring any-"

"They did _what?!_ " Anna screeched out in glee.

Great. Now Anna knew about the Kissadent. Something I hadn't wanted her to find out about. Like, ever.

My fingers curled, strangling the air in Rayne's direction. Then with a muted growl, I stomped my foot against the carpet.

It wasn't loud.

But it was enough.

Anna spun on her heel with a gasp, blanching at the sight of me. Her eyes flicked towards the bathroom before trying to make a break for it, but I jumped in front of her, blocking her escape route. She then held up her hands and started backing away as I slowly stalked towards her. A nervous chuckle escaped her, "Now, now, Sis! J-just remember that-" the back of her leg bumped against the couch and she fell over backwards onto it. Recovering quickly, she scrambled up over its backrest, crash landing to the floor on the other side. Back on her feet in a flash, she continued in reverse towards the kitchen, "-that you love m-me!"

As I climbed over the sofa after her, she took the opportunity to drop down, scrabble under the dining table and pop up on the other side, putting it between me and her. I gave her a sickeningly sweet smile as I leaned forward, placing my hands on top of the table. "I also love piñatas. Love smashing them open and spilling their rainbow, candied guts across the ground."

Anna gulped. "But you… you couldn't really just, ya know… _kill_ me… r-right?"

"Oh no, I couldn't _just_ kill you… first I'd draw and quarter you, flay you alive, dip you in liquid nitrogen, snap every frozen limb off your body one by one, and _then_ I'd kill you."

"Shit, El, remind me never to get on your bad side," Lea laughed.

Right? Who knew I could be so murdery? Crud, do I need to see a therapist?

Whatever, no time to think about my worryingly homicidal tendencies right now. I had a little sister to eradicate.

I charged around the table towards her. She shrieked, booking it and we circled the kitchen a few times. However, I was gaining fast. Soon, sweet sweet vengeance would be mine. Just another few seconds and-

"Alright, that's _enough!_ " Rayne suddenly shouted, rocketing up out of her chair. Anna hid behind her and my feet skidded to a stop in front of my roommate. "Do I have to separate you two? Put you in opposite corners of the room to stare at the wall and think about what you've done?"

"She's the one who started it!" I snapped, glaring at Anna.

Her mature and oh so dignified response was to blow a raspberry at me over Rayne's shoulder.

My nostrils flared and I lunged at her. However, I was brought up short by an abrupt burst of pain in my upper ear. Took me a second to realize Rayne was pinching it with a scowl. And her other hand? Giving one of Anna's ears the same punishment. "Okay, seriously, you both need to stop. _Now_. Otherwise I'll… I'll send you to your rooms without dinner!"

Anna rolled her eyes, "Pfffft, you can't do that, it's not like you're my- ow, ow, ow!" I took it Rayne had squeezed her ear harder.

"Oooo, busted!" Lea snerked at us.

Rayne's death glare landed on him. "You want a piece of this, Red?!"

He paled, tossing his hands up in surrender.

Mama Bear Rayne had awoken. May whatever divine entity that watched over the universe from up on high have mercy on our poor, wretched souls.

With a huff, she forced us both to sit down, me back in my chair, Anna taking the one Rayne had just vacated. "You two are going to settle this, right here, right now." Anna pouted, crossing her arms and slouching down into her seat while I simply harrumphed and looked away. Rayne sighed, "...Anna, is there something you'd like to say to your sister?"

The silence stretched. Then finally, begrudgingly, "Sorry… for lying to Weaseltown about you and Lea or whatever."

Golly gee, so heartfelt.

Rayne cleared her throat and nudged my shoulder. "Elsa?"

My face scrunched up, but then I inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly, grumbling, "...sorry for trying to kill you or whatever."

"There! Perfect," Rayne happily chirped, bowing to wrap her arms around both our shoulders and hug us close to her. "One big happy family again! So glad that silliness is now all over and done with!"

Oh-ho, this was far from over.

Just you wait, Anna. I will be revenged.

Straightening back up with a single clap of her hands, Rayne went on, "Okay! Now that we've put that dumb lil spat behind us, we can get back to what's important!" She gestured between Lea and me, "You two going make-believe steady!"

Ugh. How quickly she flipped that switch from angry parent scolding children to utter loon spouting off crackpot ideas. I blamed the baby hormones.

"No!" I stated firmly. "Absolutely not! I am not going through with it! It's ridiculous, I refuse!"

"And give me one good reason why not," she said as she walked over to Riku who took her hand and gently pulled her down to sit in his lap, planting a soft kiss on her cheek.

"Because it's the stupidest plan ever!"

She scoffed, "I said a good reason. That's just an opinion, and a wrong one at that."

I frowned, gnawing on my lower lip. "Because… because…"

Because I potentially had the warm fuzzies for Lea and I might just completely short circuit if he and I had to act like boyfriend and girlfriend.

But I couldn't say _that_.

I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye and another thought struck me. I seized it like a drowning woman clings to a life preserver in a hurricane. "Ah! Because Lea hasn't agreed to any of this either!" I declared triumphantly to her before turning to him. "Listen, thank you, it's been sweet of you to humor the nutty pregnant lady this whole time, really, but you can stop now. You don't have to do this. It's okay, we all know you'd rather not."

He tipped his head to one side. "Whatever gave you that idea?"

My gaze averted and I gave a tiny shrug. "Well, you know… you're focusing on your schoolwork at the moment and have that whole… dating embargo thing going on, girls are a distraction and whatnot... I mean, I know it'd only be pretend, but still-"

"Wait, wait, hang on," he held up a hand, blinking a couple times at me. "How do you know I'm not dating at the moment?"

"What, like it's some big secret?" Rayne snerked. "Please, it's public knowledge."

His eyes darted back and forth between us, his brow furrowing. "You two were talking about it? How'd that even come up?"

Abort! Abort! He asks about that which he must never know!

Rayne brushed off, "Don't flatter yourself, Red, it was just girl talk. We also talked about what a cute butt Ventus has!"

I stiffened and scowled at her. "I most certainly did-" I hissed out in pain as she kicked me under the table.

"See?" Rayne grinned brightly.

Not. That was the word my sentence was supposed to end in. _Not_. I most certainly had _not_ been talking about Ventus's posterior or anyone else's for that matter!

"You wanna run that by me again?" Riku drawled, eyelids drooping at her.

"Shush now, don't be jelly, you know I'll always think your tush is the cutest!" she cooed, pinching his cheek.

Bleh. TMI. Gross.

Lea seemed to be of the same mind as me, if the look on his face was any clue. Shaking his head and ruffling his fingers through his hair, he glanced back towards me, "Anyway… look, if this gets you out of a tough spot, I wouldn't mind. This… wouldn't be a distraction. This is just helping out a friend. I can always make time for that!"

Both eyebrows shot up my forehead. "...you'd really do that? Go along with this absolutely bonkers plan for who knows how long... all just for my sake?"

"Well yeah," he flashed those heart-stopping dimples of his, "I'd do anything for you, El!"

Good bye, oxygen. My lungs didn't need to do a silly little thing like breathing anyway.

"Cuz you're a friend!" he blurted out quickly, scratching the back of his head as his eyes shifted. "And there isn't anything I wouldn't do for… for my friends! Heh!"

Oh. Right. Of course that's what he'd meant.

At ease, lungs. Feel free to return to your regularly scheduled respiring now.

But see? _This_ is what I was talking about. We weren't even fake dating yet and I was already having total core meltdowns at the littlest things he did or said. How could I possibly even hope to function if we actually went through with this whole screwball plan?

"There ya go!" Rayne beamed at me. "Any other objections, sweetie?"

"I, uh…" I wanted to argue. I really did. But I had nothing. Nothing I could say _aloud_ in Lea's presence anyway. And as totally cuckoo as this whole idea was, I had to reluctantly admit that Rayne had made some halfway decent points. Now that I could no longer delay the inevitable and _had_ to talk to my parents, this... _would_ actually make standing up to them a little easier. And as much as it pained me to say it, I wouldn't put it past the Duke to still have someone keeping an eye on me and reporting back to him. So if I didn't want my parents to find out it was all a sham to get them to back off, pretending to be boyfriend and girlfriend actually kind of, sort of, in a totally absurd way… made sense? Somehow?

Still, I hesitated. Worrying my bottom lip between my teeth, I glanced around the table. Rayne watched me expectantly while Riku reached past her for some more popcorn. Lea just gave me a comforting smile. As for Anna, she was texting on her phone. Tch, typical.

Taking a deep breath, I massaged one temple with a grimace and a sigh. "...okay. I guess… we're doing this."

"Yay!" Rayne cheered, throwing her hands up into the air.

Dear lord, had I really just agreed to this madness? Really just hopped on board the crazy train with Rayne and Anna? What even was my life anymore?

"Perfect timing!" Anna looked up from her phone with a toothy grin.

I frowned suspiciously back. "What do you mean?"

She flipped the mobile around to show me her screen. "Daddy Dearest just can't wait to see you and meet your new boytoy tomorrow!"

"What?!" I grabbed it out of her hands, quickly scanning her text exchange with our father.

"Yup!" Still looking pleased as punch, she planted her elbows on the table and propped her chin up in both hands. "Don't worry, I've arranged everything! Told him you wanted to stop by your old condo after work and pick up a few things, ya know, your phone, some clothes, stuff like that! Dad'll be there to unlock the door for you since you don't have your key. And Lea, being an absolute sweetheart that knows how to treat his bae right, will of course be giving you a ride. What'd I tell ya? Perfect! What better way for you two lovebirds to make your royal debut?"

Oh god. This was it. It was really happening. There was no turning back now.

What on earth had I just gotten myself into?

* * *

_**Author's Note:** _ _Yup, it's the ol' "hey look, circumstances have forced us to fake date" situation we all know and love! It took some doing, a lil bending over backwards and acrobatics, but finally our ice queen has been convinced to get on board with the plan as well, albeit reluctantly xD Thank you so much for reading, especially to those of you who have left a kudos and shared with me your thoughts and feelings on this story so far! Remember, feedback is not only welcome, but highly encouraged and super appreciated!_


	15. Chapter 15

So... last time on _The Burning Wreckage That Is My Life_ (please excuse the working title).

I had a crush on a guy. Well, maybe… I mean, I think I did? But I couldn't let him _know_ that I had a crush on him. And just to make things extra complicated, I _now_ had to act like we were _dating_ when we really weren't. So basically… I like-liked him but had to pretend that I _didn't_ like-like him while at the same time pretending that I _did_ like-like him.

Confused yet? I know I was.

Also, I really needed to stop using the word like-like.

Ugh, what had I been thinking? This was a _terrible_ plan. A disaster just waiting to happen. There was no possible way it could end well. And yet, here I sat in my apartment, watching the clock as I waited for my fake boyfriend to come pick me up. What was the matter with me? What had possessed to ever say yes to this… this _insanity?_

I had gotten off work not too long ago and had come straight home to prepare for my meetup with Father. This was Lea's day off, so I hadn't had to start this whole farce of a relationship around the mall today, which at least was one small comfort. My fingers as per usual were fidgeting with my freshly washed and plaited hair as I watched the seconds slowly tick by, my stomach twisting into tighter and tighter knots.

Sighing, I forced my hands to stop fussing with the braid and they complied… only to start picking at the flaps of the empty cardboard box Rayne had scrounged up for me to put things from my old place into. With a tiny scowl, I shoved my hands into my lap, demanding they be still. That lasted maybe all of two seconds before they started fiddling and twisting at the buttons that ran all the way down the front my navy corduroy overalls dress. The long sleeved shirt I wore underneath it was off the shoulder and white with blue horizontal stripes. The dress itself fell all the way down to my ankles, with a slit up to the knee on one side, giving a peek of my snowflake-patterned tights.

Yes, I was a full grown adult who still liked cutesy prints on my socks and stockings. So sue me.

Erg, where was he? As much as I was dreading seeing Father again and wished I didn't have to deal with it at all, the wait was killing me. And I couldn't put it off forever so I'd rather just get this awfulness over with already. I-

"Hello, Lea?" I heard Rayne's voice and I whipped my head around to spot her stepping out of her bedroom, smartphone pressed to one ear. She shot me a grin but then it faded as she glanced away with a squint. "Whaddya mean you're down in the parking lot? Get your ass up here and knock on the door like a goddamn gentleman, you-"

In the space of a heartbeat, I'd zoomed across the room to snatch the phone from her. "I'll be right down, see you in a sec!" I said quickly into it and, not waiting for a reply, hung up the call before Rayne could steal her phone back.

"Hey!" she huffed, fumbling to catch the device as I tossed to her. Then she gave a tiny whine, "But sweetpea, that's no way for him to treat a lady! I expected better of him!"

I rolled my eyes as I returned to the table to grab the box by one of its flaps. "I _told_ him to just call up when he got here."

Rayne followed behind me with a tiny pout. "But I wanted to practice my whole 'What are your intentions towards my daughter' speech on him!"

"And that," I smirked, tapping her on the nose with my free hand, "is exactly why I told him to call."

Puffing out her cheeks, she crossed her arms. "You're no fun!"

"Ouch. Your words, they wound me. But somehow, someway… I think I'll live," I deadpanned, making my way over to open the front door.

"Oh! Curfew's at ten! Not one minute later, missy, not one _second_ or you're grounded!"

I paused to turn back and droop my eyelids at her. "...too far, Rayne. Too far." Then I left, slamming the door shut behind me.

That woman, I swear. Loved her to pieces, but the sooner that baby was out of her, the better. Then she could focus all of that crazy on her new bundle of joy instead of me.

As I hurried down the steps, I went over the game plan in my head again. It'd been another sleepless night last night as I'd mentally prepared myself for Operation Boyfriend But Shh Not Really. That's right, I'd named it. Come on, it's _me_ , how could I not? It was the only way I could feel like I had any sort of control over this whole situation. Which I one hundred percent did _not_. But I needed to try and trick myself into believing that I did if I had any chance of staying sane through all of this.

_This_ being Lea and me. Pretending to be boyfriend and girlfriend. And boyfriends and girlfriends did… _things_. No, not _that!_ _Definitely_ not that, that would be going well above and beyond the call of duty! Yeesh, get your mind out of the gutter! I only meant like, ya know… holding hands, hugging… other various public displays of affection that shall remain nameless because I quite simply could not deal with even the mere thought of such things without my face bursting into flames.

But I was going to have to deal if I had any hope of getting through this. And to deal, I needed to face facts. Lea only saw me as a friend. He was only playing along to help me… as a _friend_. Whatever I was or wasn't feeling towards him, he did not feel the same way. Doing all those aforementioned boyfriend-girlfriend things? Wasn't going to threaten to make his heart explode like it would mine. So if I was going to survive long enough to make it out the other side of this little fiasco, my heart needed to take a chill pill.

Conceal, don't feel. That was going to be my mantra. It was one I was actually already very familiar with and had put to good practice regularly over the years. Rayne had been right. Growing up in my family, feelings had been a luxury. And as the eldest heir to the Fryse fortune, I'd had an image to maintain, the family name to uphold. I hadn't gotten to enjoy the same freedoms Anna had since she'd been born second. Not that I think I could have ever been such a… shall we say, _free spirit_ like her. I'd always been the bundle of nerves on legs that I am. Conceal, don't feel… that'd been the only way I'd been able to maintain the calm, cool mask in front of high society and not be a walking, talking spazz of an embarrassment to my parents.

And now that little motto was what was going to get me through all this.

At least, I hoped so.

Reaching the bottom floor of my building, I stopped just short of the exit, taking a slow deep breath. Then I smoothed my dress, swept my braid forward over one shoulder and gave myself a reassuring nod.

I got this.

With my box still firmly in hand, I pushed open the door and stepped outside into the parking lot where I immediately spotted Lea. He was looking down at his phone, his thumb swiping across its screen every so often while he leaned against what was presumably his car. A (what looked to be) few decades old yet well taken care of muscle car, black and sleek and one of the types named after an animal like viper or cougar or stingray, you know, just to let you know how cool this vehicle really was. It seemed Lea had decided to color coordinate with his ride, for he was dressed in head-to-toe black himself. Beneath the leather jacket that he wore was a fitted tee that simply read _Straight Fire_ in cracked and faded script. His skinny jeans were ripped at the knees and tucked into a pair of tall, combat boots. If possible, his crimson locks seemed even wilder than usual today and he was also sporting a pair of aviator sunglasses.

...I don't got this.

Also, I was staring.

Also, I'd dropped my box.

Jeez, Elsa, get a grip. So what if the guy was gorgeous? We already knew that. Had established it from day one. It wasn't any sort of definitive proof you'd caught feelings or anything. Anyone, any _thing_ , even a corpse, even a frigging _lamppost_ would be susceptible to his, er… his charms.

Giving myself a quick shake, I retrieved my box from the ground and walked towards him. His head lifted at the sound of my footsteps and I could feel his gaze on me. Pocketing his phone as I came to a stop in front of him, he then hunched to my eye level, bringing his face closer to mine as he tipped down his shades, revealing his all but trademark winged eyeliner with a wink and a smirk. "What's cookin', good lookin'?"

...okay. There was a _slight_ chance I'd caught feelings.

But psssh, that little flutter in my rib cage could have been anything. Maybe my last meal was disagreeing with me. Yeah, that had to be it.

Remember. Conceal, don't feel.

Squelching the foreign sensation in my chest, I fixed him with a blank stare. "...wow, that the best you got? You really have been out of the game for a while, haven't you?"

With a snerk, he used a foot to push himself up off the car as he straightened up and opened the passenger side door for me. "Nah, s'not that. I'm just going easy on you. Couldn't have you going all weak in the knees on me right before our big date with your dad."

"I think my knees have nothing to worry about," one corner of my lips turned up as I took a seat.

"You say that now, but trust me," he bent towards me, propping an elbow atop the door window and jerking a thumb towards his face, "if I really turned it on, you wouldn't stand a chance, sweet thang, it'd be straight to Swoon City for you!"

I quirked an eyebrow at him, "Did you really just use the terms 'sweet thang' and 'Swoon City' in the same sentence?"

"...yeah, not my proudest moment. Can we forget that ever happened?"

Biting back a grin, I nodded. "I think that'd be in both our best interests. Mostly yours."

"Smart ass," he shook his head with a chuckle, shutting my door and making his way around to the other side of the car.

Okay. Good. This was going well. He didn't suspect a thing. Elsa, Queen of Evasion. Now I only needed to keep up the act for the duration of the ride. A mere one hour road trip to the city of Arendelle. A measly sixty minutes. And really, what was sixty minutes in the grand scheme of things? Hardly a blip in time. This shouldn't be too hard, right?

...then of course there would be when we actually got there and Lea and I'd have to put on a whole other kind of act for Father. Then the hour long trip _back_. Then the-

Easy there, girl. Just focus on the immediate task before you. One step at a time.

I heard his door open and glanced over, watching him take a seat and buckle himself in. My lips pursed to one side. "...so Halloween come early this year?"

"Huh?" his hand froze just as he'd been about to turn the key in the ignition, head turning my way, eyebrows shooting high above his aviators. Then he looked down at himself, patting at his shirt and jacket. "You don't like it? Crap, do I look like trash?"

I blinked.

Had I really… just made Lea self-conscious? _Lea?_ The guy who'd dragged me up to do karaoke with him? The guy who'd been dancing around like a doofus atop food court tables while lip-syncing to corny glam metal? _That_ Lea? I wouldn't have even thought the word to exist in his vocabulary.

Oh gosh, I must have taken it too far in the other direction. It's 'Conceal, don't feel,' not 'Demean, be mean.'

Hastily, I said, "No, it's not that. I… you look… good." Like, _real_ good… ahem, down girl. I averted my gaze, hoping my face didn't look as warm as it felt. "I just… wasn't expecting it, is all."

"Oh!" he perked up, a tiny smile pulling at his lips now. "Well, I'm supposed to be your dark, bad boy lover, right? Just wanted to make sure I played up the part. Whaddya think, do I look like your parents' worst nightmare or what?"

"That getup is going to leave an impression, that's for sure."

He started up the engine and it roared to life. "Hell yeah! This is how you pick me out of a crowd. I make myself easy to remember. No way your padre's forgetting me anytime soon."

"I doubt _anyone's_ forgetting you anytime soon. Don't think they could even if they wanted to," I snorted, resting my elbow on the window sill and propping my head against my knuckles.

"Never really could just blend and fade into the background. Side effect of being so majestic," his tongue clicked twice and pretty sure there was a wink behind those shades. Then he nodded to the box in my lap as he reversed the car out of its space, "You can just toss that in the back with the others."

"Others?" I looked over my shoulder to the backseat to discover a few just like mine packed in there. "You brought more?"

He shrugged, exiting the lot and turning us out onto the main road. "Well yeah! Just wanted to help in whatever small way I could."

Small way? The guy was already throwing his whole friggin' life out of whack just to basically be my rent-a-boyfriend, for Pete's sake! I hadn't thought it possible for him to help me even _more_ than he already was. And yet, he'd found a way. To be fair, I hadn't planned to take much back from my old condo, so really, the extra boxes weren't totally necessary. But still…

"Thanks, Lea," I gave him a tiny smile as I put mine with the rest of the herd, "you're very thoughtful."

His fingers ruffled his hair as he gave a sheepish laugh. "Nah, it's nothing."

Alright. Two minutes down. Only fifty-eight more to go.

Lord help me.

Remember when I was more hermity? Yeah, those were the days. I wonder whatever happened to those?

Oh, that's right. My sister and my roommate happened.

Brats.

"So…" I began, racking my brain for the next thing to talk about. Ah, small talk. Bane of my existence. "...nice ride. Please tell me you didn't get it just to complete this whole look you're going for."

"Shit, should I have not?" I just stared at him and he snerked, breaking out into a grin, "Nah, I'm just messing with ya. It was my old man's car. Only thing he left me when he kicked the bucket. Well, that and massive debt. Thankfully, the state took that second one off my hands."

That's right. Lea'd been brought up in the foster system. So this now explained why one of his parents had been out of the picture. I frowned, tucking in my bottom lip. "...I'm sorry."

"Why? Got no reason to be," he chuckled, shaking his head. "It was ages ago, I've long since made my peace with it. I'm not broken up about it, trust me."

My eyes drifted from the buildings blurring past us over to him. "What was he like?"

His head shifted slightly towards me for a second before pointing straight ahead again. "Well… he wasn't ever gonna be winning father of the year, that's for sure. Not even runner up or one of those cruddy lil participation ribbons. The guy ODed out when I was six, so take from that what you will." He paused, tapping an index finger to the steering wheel a few times. "...but he did care. Did his best to do right by me. Saïx too, even though he wasn't his kid. The man wasn't a bad guy… he just didn't have his shit together and never really was meant to be a father."

The downward tug at my lips deepened as I lowered my gaze to my hands, folded neatly in my lap. "...can I ask, ah… your mother..."

"Where she fits into all this?" he ventured and I gave a slow nod. "Oh, she makes Pops look like he was a goddamn saint. She's a leech. Just hopping from one sugar daddy to the next, popping out kids she never wanted. Same day we buried our old man, she took Saïx and me out for ice cream after. Handed us some munny and told us to go order and pay while she snagged us a table to sit at. When we turned around a few minutes later, she'd split. Haven't seen her since."

My heart squeezed as I regarded him with wide eyes. "Wow, that… that's just awful. You have no idea where she is at all?"

"Didn't say that now. We actually did some digging into it a few years ago. Turns out she's just a couple states over, shacked up with some new sucker. An orthodontist or something. They're living up the suburbia life with the white picket fence, two-point-five kids, the whole shebang. Guess Saïx and I were just her practice run rejects before she went off and started her real family." He shrugged, "Though maybe she'll eventually skip out on this one too, who knows?"

I tipped my head to one side. "How do you know all that if you haven't seen her?"

" _I_ haven't. Saïx has." He stopped at a red light, flicking on his turn signal. Then his hand was rubbing at the nape of his neck. "...she did try to reach out to me once. Last year. Left a voicemail saying something about wanting to reconnect or some bullshit. I deleted it. Couldn't of been all that serious 'bout it, seeing as how she hasn't tried again since. Probably just a halfhearted attempt to ease her pathetic excuse for a conscience before washing her hands of it and calling it a day."

My eyebrows met in a peak before I looked away again, fingers absently toying with my braid. He was talking so calmly about it all, so casually. As if he were discussing nothing more interesting than the weather. It made it harder for me to figure out an appropriate response in a situation that I was already so completely socially ill-equipped to deal with in the first place. Should I be just as laid back about it as he was? No, that felt insensitive. Should I express pity? Absolutely not, he'd probably _hate_ that…

Seriously, what do?

How do you people?

"Alright," his voice broke through my thoughts, "you're up for sharing time." The light changed green and he pressed down on the gas pedal, turning us onto the highway entrance. "Why'd you do it? Go all Runaway Bride on your big day?"

I was relieved that he (whether knowingly or not) had saved me from having to come up with something to say to his tragic backstory. Even if this _did_ mean I had to now talk about myself, which usually would have been just as anxiety-inducing of an experience. But somehow, right here, right now, talking to Lea... the idea didn't seem as uncomfortable as I normally would've expected it to be.

Twisting the tip of my braid around one finger, I mulled over it for a few silent seconds. Finally, I said, "It… he and I… we just weren't… _right_. I thought we were. _He_ thought we were. My parents and his parents certainly thought we were. And I didn't want to disappoint them, so I just kept telling myself that everything was as it should be. That he and I made sense. But we didn't. Not really, not… in my heart. We just…"

"You didn't love him," he said simply, and I winced. As if I'd done something wrong. Then I nodded. "And it took you getting within a stone's throw of saying 'I do' to realize that?"

"Well," I frowned up at the ceiling, "...I'd always heard that love takes time. So I think a part of me was just waiting for it to happen. Waiting for… I don't know… that moment where it'd just hit me, that moment of just… 'oh wow! So _that's_ what this is supposed to feel like' or something. I thought maybe… maybe our first kiss. Or maybe by our first anniversary. Or maybe when he proposed to me. Or maybe when I was trying on gowns or looking at venues with him. But then, suddenly, it was our wedding day and it struck me that still… nothing. And if it I wasn't feeling it after being together for five years, that I probably was never going to. That's when the panic set in and… well…"

"Let me guess. That's when the legendary Phonebook Heist occurred," one corner of his lips twitched up.

I breathed a soft laugh. "Yeah. Had to ditch the big poofy dress. And I used the phonebook to track Rayne down, since she wasn't listed under her full name in it."

A snort escaped him. "Ever thought of this crazy lil thing all the kids are doing nowadays called writing things down on a post-it? I know, wild right? It's new, maybe ya haven't heard of it."

"I was a bit stressed and not exactly thinking clearly in that moment," I bit back a grin, giving his arm a gentle shove.

"Gee, I wonder why," he said wryly as he shifted lanes. "Still curious as to why you felt like you had to run away. Couldn't you have just called the wedding off?"

"You make it sound so easy," my lips twisted sourly. "If it were, do you think I would have let Rayne rope us into going along with this crazy plan of Anna's and hers? You don't know my parents. They… have a way of getting what they want. No one says no to them. In their world, things are done a certain way. Always have been, always will be, end of discussion."

"Their world?" one of his eyebrows arched. Then something clicked. "That's right, you're loaded."

I shook my head, "My parents are, not me. Not anymore, anyway. Not unless you think I'm scooping mall ice cream at minimum wage just for kicks."

"What, you don't have a trust fund or something?"

"No, I do. Or rather… I _did_. I'm not sure anymore, really, not after everything I've done. Mother and Father control it and can make sure I never see a cent of it now. Not that I think I even want it anymore," I sighed, eyes downcast as I rubbed my elbow. "I really… have no idea _what_ to expect at this point. How this whole meeting with Father will go. What he'll say or do or… I'm just… _terrified_."

I felt an unexpected warmth on my shoulder and I glanced over to find Lea's hand resting there. He gave it a small squeeze and smiled, "It'll be okay, El. Everything'll work out, you'll see. You'll get through this. And I'll be there to help any way I can, capisce? Now buck up," he lightly nicked my chin with his knuckle before gripping the steering wheel again. "Gonna need you to bring your A-game here if we're gonna fool your old man. Do a real good job and there's an ice cream with your name on it when we get back to Twilight Town."

One side of my mouth tugged up. "Don't you still owe me ice cream for helping you study?"

"And I still plan to make good on that once I've finally nailed down your fave. Speaking of," he paused with a low hum. "...Aloha Ohana?" My lips parted but he was already shaking his head, "Nope, too chunky. You like your desserts like you like your men," he waggled his eyebrows, "smooth."

My grin twitched wider. "Oh, really? And how would you know?"

"Isn't it obvious? Cuz I'm yo man," he jabbed a thumb into his chest.

"...and you think you're smooth?"

"As silk, baby!"

I hid my growing smile behind my fingers. "You're a dork is what you are… but a sweet dork."

He chuckled. "Maybe. But don't tell anyone. I got my bad boy reputation to maintain."

"Your secret is safe with me."

Somehow I was now getting the feeling that this little road trip of ours?

Maybe wasn't going to be as bad as I'd originally thought.

* * *

"Whatcha think? Too much?"

I glanced over at Lea. Sunglasses now perched atop his head, he returned my gaze, looking away from using his rear view mirror to help him up his guyliner game. The makeup pencil in his hand lifted from his cheek where he'd been applying what looked to be an upside down teardrop mark just beneath his right eye.

I snerked and wrinkled my nose slightly.

Lea huffed out a tiny laugh. "Say no more," he reached over, pulling some tissue from the glove compartment and wiping off his cheek.

We'd arrived just a moment ago and had parked on Fjord Boulevard, right in front of my old condominium building. I'd been using that minute to gather myself and work up the nerve to actually get out of the car. If it hadn't already been made abundantly clear, Lea had been using that same minute just as wisely himself.

Inhaling and exhaling slowly one last time, I finally unbuckled my seatbelt, opened my door and stepped onto the sidewalk.

The building before me was tall, imposing, and screamed munny and decadence. I'd never really noticed the sheer air of grandeur about it before, but now it all but smacked me in the face. Gosh, had it really only been about a month since I'd last been here? It felt like eons ago. A whole other lifetime. That girl who'd lived here once upon a time… she hadn't been me. Not really. It almost felt wrong coming back here now. Like I was an imposter. Some sort of usurper. It made my insides shrivel up and it took everything I had not to just jump back into the car and speed away without so much as a backwards glance.

Spotting movement out of the corner of my eye, I turned my head to find Lea standing next to me now, a couple of the smaller cardboard boxes wedged between his arm and side. My hands went to take one from him but he pivoted back a step, shifting them out of my reach as he wagged a finger in my face, "Ah ah! Don't worry about it, I got 'em. Makes me feel all buff and manly." He flexed his free arm.

I gave him a dull look. "...they're empty."

"Shush, let me have this."

My eyelids drooped. "Fine. You're the manliest man to ever man."

"Thank you." Then he gave a tiny mock bow, sweeping one hand out wide towards the building before us, "Lady's first."

Shaking my head, I walked towards the doorman standing in wait beneath the long awning leading to the entrance.

That's right. Doorman. As if this place weren't fancy enough already.

"Welcome back, Miss Fryse," he greeted, pulling the door open for me. "Or, if I may be so bold, Mrs W-"

" _No!_ " I blurted out quickly, eyes wide, palms blurring up in a stop gesture.

Oh gosh, he had no idea I'd ran out on the wedding.

...well of _course_ he didn't! Why would he?

...awkwaaaaard.

"Th-thank you, Cliff," I shakily lowered my hands to clasp in front of me, averting my gaze. "Ah… Fryse, please… if you would."

The man seemed unperturbed. In fact, his face brightened, "Oh, how modern! My missus will be thrilled to hear it. I trust you had a lovely honeymoon?"

And the awkward just kept on coming.

"It… er… " I cleared my throat. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but I'm actually in a small bit of a hurry. I have plans to meet with Father here shortly."

"Ah yes, so he said as well," he nodded before looking past me with a delicate frown. "And would this be the, uh… _guest_ he mentioned would be accompanying you?"

I followed his gaze, glancing over my shoulder to where Lea stood behind me, hooligan incarnate. He clicked his tongue, shooting a finger gun at the doorman. I said, "Yes, I suppose he would b-" the words caught in my throat and I quickly looked back at Cliff. "Wait, so he said?" I echoed. "...is my father here already?"

"Why yes, ma'am, I let him in but a few moments ago."

My heart plummeted into my stomach.

I hadn't expected him to be here before us. I'd thought we would still have a little more time.

But he was here now.

This was happening _now_.

Like... _now_ now.

And I was so very…

... _very_ …

... _NOT_ ready!

Somehow, I kept it together enough to manage a thanks to Cliff before stepping inside, feeling my knees start to go numb. And somehow, I kept it together while crossing the gilded, marble foyer to the elevators, ignoring the clamminess of my palms. I even somehow kept it together long enough to exchange pleasantries with the lobby attendant there who called the lift down for us before Lea and I stepped onto it and I, with only a slight tremor to my limbs, pushed the button for the top floor.

But the _nanosecond_ those mechanized, mirrored doors slid shut…

"I can't!" My hands shot up, fingers digging into my scalp as I started hyperventilating and pacing, feeling the elevator begin to rise. "I can't go through with this! I can't, I just can't do it! This is crazy, this, this is _nuts_! How the heck did I ever let them talk me into this?! _How?!_ There's just… just no way! It's not possible, I can't! I can't, I can't, I-"

Lea was suddenly in front of me, gently grabbing my arms and bringing me to an abrupt stop. "Woah now, slow down, El, breathe," he bent down to look me in the eye with concern. "It'll be okay. Trust me on this, you _can_ do this. _We_ can. You just gotta take it one step at a time and breathe, okay? Can you do that for me?"

"But how?! How will it be okay? I have to _lie_ to him! I can't lie, I don't know how! I have no chill! You hear me? None! Zip! Absolutely _zero_ chill! I couldn't even lie to Anna about the Easter Bunny when she was only four years old! Four, Lea. _Four!_ "

"Okay, alright, then just don't think about it as lying. Think about it as…" his lips pursed to the left as his eyes shifted about. Then his face lit up, "...as one of those musicals you like so much!"

"Ah! We should break out into song and dance!" I said excitedly if somewhat desperately.

This is my brain. This is my brain on panic attack.

"...let's call that plan B. But no, I meant more like we're… _between_ numbers right now and that we're _acting_. You like acting, right? Told me you used to do it all the time at camp, remember?"

"Acting…" I repeated slowly, turning the word over in my mind as some of the tension started to ease from my body.

Yes, acting. Acting technically, _technically_ wasn't lying. Acting I could do.

...maybe.

I frowned at him. "I need a script."

"A script," he blinked. Then he straightened up, tapping a knuckle to his chin. "What about instead… guidelines?"

"Guidelines?" I echoed flatly.

"Yeah, for… ya know…" he pointed back and forth between him and me, "...this. Us. When we're in front of your folks and around the mall. Stuff like, uh..." he cleared his throat, scratching the back of his head, "...PDAs? Do's and don'ts. What's okay and what isn't. Boundaries and whatnot."

...oh.

Oh _fudge_.

"...you're kidding me… this is only coming up _now?!_ " Recommencing pacing forthwith, now with added braid yanking action. "What's _wrong_ with me, what was I _thinking?!_ We had that whole friggin' car ride here, no, the whole last twenty-four _hours_ and somehow we didn't discuss this already?! Not even once?!"

"El, El, it's okay, we can figure all that stuff out now."

His hand tried to close around my arm again, but I jerked it free. "How? There's no time! Any second, the elevator with chime and those doors will part and we'll have to face him and I'll crack and he'll _know_ and, and, and that's _it!_ Done! Finito! Curtains! It'll all be over before it's even begun and-"

This time he did manage to grab hold of my arm, pulling me to him and wrapping his arms around me in a tight hug. "Shh," he murmured, lightly stroking my hair and resting his chin on my head. He felt so warm as I took shallow, rapid breaths against his chest, inhaling that cinnamon scent of his combined with the oddly soothing smell of leather from his jacket that I was tightly gripping onto. My eyes slowly fluttered shut, my muscles starting to relax again, my panicked heart rate beginning to calm.

This was actually somewhat… kind of nice...

And then it happened.

The elevator chimed. Those doors parted. My eyes snapped open to discover standing there waiting for us on the other side was-

"F-Father!" I gasped, shoving Lea away. "Hi! I mean," I stood up straighter, stepped out onto the new floor, folded one hand over the other just below my waist, and ducked my head slightly, "H-Hello."

...wait.

Did I just…?

Instant mental replay.

_-shoving Lea away-_

Crud.

Not five seconds in and I was already acting in a most ungirlfriendlike fashion towards my alleged boyfriend.

What'd I tell you? Zero chill. Zilch.

"Elsa," I heard my father say, drawing my attention back to him. He was a tall man with hair the same auburn as Anna's. He looked stiff and rigid in the expensive dark blue suit he was wearing, lips set into a stoic line beneath his thin mustache and green eyes stern as he regarded me. The air felt heavy around us, the long stretch of silence deafening. I was convinced there was no possible way he couldn't hear the jackhammering of my heart against my ribcage while I tried to maintain a cool exterior under his scrutiny. Then finally after what felt like an eternity, he said evenly, "You look well."

I bit down on my lip as I lowered my gaze once more, eyes darting about. "...as do you."

Insert uncomfortably drawn-out pause. Then, "And I presume this would be…?"

He was looking at Lea, standing beside me now with boxes once more lazily propped on his jutted hip. My heart jolted and I started wringing my hands. "Ah… yes… this… this is…"

Just spit it out already!

"...this is boy. He is friend."

I word good.

Alright, take two.

Suppressing my wince, I tried again, "Er, that is to say, this is…" I clenched and unclenched my hands at my sides. "...this is my… my-"

"Lea," he rescued me, introducing himself and offering his hand.

My father just stared at it, expression unreadable, and there was a second - one very _long_ second - where I thought he might not take it. But at last he did, if a touch gingerly, and gave it a curt shake. "A... _pleasure_ , I'm sure."

"Likewise, Pops." He grinned now, "It's fine to call you Pops, right? Might as well get all friendly cuz we're gonna be seeing a _lot_ of each other, no doubt."

Father didn't so much as yank his hand back as retrieve it as quickly as was politely and socially acceptable, his lips tight. "...Mr Fryse will suffice."

Lea just shrugged and grinned wider, taking his own hand back.

And slid it into mine, interlacing our fingers together.

Heart.

Flatlined.

Okay, sure, this really shouldn't have been all that big of a deal. After all, Lea had held my hand before. But that had just been when he'd needed to drag me somewhere. It'd been incidental. This? This was hand holding with _purpose_. This hand holding was a declaration. This hand holding was up on the metaphorical soapbox with a megaphone and would not be ignored. This hand holding was making a goddamn _statement_.

This hand holding was causing me to burn bright red.

Conceal, don't feel, conceal, don't feel, conceal, don't feel!

Luckily, Father's narrowed gaze was too focused on said hand holding to notice my face trying to give the plush, deep crimson carpet beneath our feet a run for its munny. After another excruciatingly long second (of which I was beginning to suspect this little visit would be in no short supply of), he whipped around and strode off down the hallway, back ramrod straight and voice taut as he said, "Let's step into your condo now."

"Let's," Lea chirped, following after him.

Still holding my hand.

I stumbled into awkward step beside him, glancing out of the corner of my eye down at where my tingling fingers were intertwined with his. This was no longer necessary… right? I mean, Father wasn't looking at us anymore. So I should just let go, shouldn't I? Yes… yes, I absolutely should. Okay, here we go… letting go now… in three… two… one...

...I wasn't letting go.

I shot my hand a tiny scowl. Fine, you win. Five more seconds, bucko, but that's it.

It remained stubbornly fastened to his. _Fifteen_ seconds.

I rolled my eyes. _Ten_ seconds, but that's as high as I'm willing to go.

...was I seriously haggling with my hand just now?

I'm in desperate need of having my head examined.

It wasn't long before we came to a stop where the hall turned at a corner, Father using a key already in hand to open the door located there. _My_ door. Or rather… what was now _formerly_ my door, I suppose. He walked in first with Lea not too far behind him and me in tow, my hand still in his.

To say the condo we'd stepped into was spacious would be an understatement. The living room alone probably could have fit Rayne's and Riku's apartment in it twice over. It was a corner unit with massive floor-to-ceiling windows leading out onto an expansive balcony overlooking the city and the distant white-capped mountains that surrounded it. With its crystal tables, art deco furniture, and extravagant paintings hanging on the walls, the sitting room was quite picturesque. So pretty, so pristine, so... _sterile_. Like one of those staged pictures that would be on a website trying to catch the eye of potential buyers. My mother had done the decorating, not I, which was probably why it looked so unlived in. This was more space than I had ever really needed anyway. I'd rarely left my own bedroom when I'd called this place home.

A low whistle blew from Lea's lips as his eyes drifted around the room. "Wow, you really were a princess up in a tower, huh?" He slipped his hand out of mine and I had to ignore how cold and lonely my fingers now felt. Stupid, clingy fingers. "Why don't you two take a minute to catch up while I," he held up the boxes, giving them a tiny shake, "go get started in your room. Which door is it? Bah, nevermind, I'll figure it out."

I blinked. Wait, my room? I didn't know if I was all that comfortable with the idea of someone being in there without me and going through my stuff.

I turned to look at him, opening my mouth to voice my objection. Before I could utter a sound however, his hand cradled the back of my neck, drawing me closer to him and planting a tender kiss to my forehead, sending waves of icy heat rippling all the way down to my toes.

I-

Wha-

Conc-

Don-

Fe-

Con- Co- C-C-Congeal, tone eel!

...wait, what?

Please stand by, Elsa is currently experiencing some minor technical difficulties.

He pulled back, smiling down at me and murmuring, "Have fun, babe." Yup. Those were words alright. Did I understand them? Nope! In fact, I wasn't comprehending much of anything in that second. "Pops," Lea shot my father a two-fingered salute before wandering off down an archway on the far side of the room leading to the rest of the condo.

Father lifted his nose with a sniff, lips pinching almost imperceptibly. "Your… _friend_ is quite the... character."

"Ah… yes. He is," I heard myself replying, surprised that I was able to string more than two words together, bonus points for being in the correct order to boot. Wouldn't have thought it possible, what with my brains having been melted to mush inside the blazing sauna that was currently my face. There was no way Father could miss it this time. Hopefully he just thought I was embarrassed over the impropriety of Lea's forwardness. Not wanting to give him a chance to read too much into it, I hastily asked, "How is Mother?"

"As well as can be expected," he said flatly, folding his arms behind him and shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "...better… since we've had news of you."

I winced, looking down at my feet.

And there it was again. That stifling silence.

There were so many things unsaid hanging in the air between us. A big whopping elephant wearing a friggin' diamond-studded wedding gown in the room that neither one of us wanted to be the first one to bring up, it seemed. At least, I know _I_ certainly didn't. I knew I couldn't avoid the unpleasant topic forever, but at the same time there was a silly little part of me that was hoping if I put it off long enough, that... I don't know... the statute of limitations for discussing it would expire or something.

If only.

Well, someone had to be the one to start. Might as well get this over with. Screwing my eyes shut, I took a deep breath and-

"Snowbunny? Could you come in here for a sec please?" Lea's voice rang out from down the hall.

Great. And just when my face had finally managed to cool down too. At the rate this was going, I was beginning to suspect my cheeks might get stuck in this lovely shade of tomato rouge.

Plastering on a smile, I told Father, "I'll be right back."

"Of course," he gave a simple nod. However, the tiny scowl he was directing towards where Lea's words had come from was not lost on me.

I primly and with as much dignity as I could muster walked over to the archway. As soon as I was out of his line of sight however, I broke into a sprint down the hall, skidding to a stop in the doorway to my bedroom and scrunching up my face. " _Snowbunny?_ " I spat out like it left a bad taste in my mouth.

He looked up from where he was neatly folding one of my dresses into a box atop my bed, flashing me a grin. "Was trying out a pet name to use around the folks. Thoughts?"

"I think there's a razor thin line between you trying to not look or sound like a pushover in front of them and you just straight up pissing them off."

"Huh," he tipped his head to one side. "...keep workingshopping it then?"

I rolled my eyes with a soft snort, moving further into the room to stand in front of him, "Yes, I'd say so."

"Noted." He closed the flaps to the box shut before crossing his arms and shifting over to lean back against my vanity, frowning at me. "Hey, we're okay right?" At my quirked eyebrow, he elaborated, "Ya know, with the _this_ ," he raised one of his hands with a waggle, then pointed at my own hand, "holding _that_ , and _these_ ," now he gestured to his lips before gently poking my brow, "planting one right _there_."

"Oh." I resisted the urge to reach up to where my forehead still felt warm and had the ghost of a tickle from the brush of his lips earlier. Doing my best to suppress the umpteenth blush of the day, I looked away, "No, no, that was nice… er, I mean fine. _Acceptable_."

Elsa, Queen of Keeping Her Cool.

He grinned in relief. "Good. Was just winging it since we didn't really get a chance to discuss anything, but wouldn't have wanted to do something that made you uncomfortable."

"Nope! Totally a-okay here." I gave him a thumbs up. Then immediately felt lame for giving him a thumbs up and instead put my hands to better use running them down my braid. "So… I'm assuming there's an actual reason you called me in here."

"Right!" He flicked a hand at the two cardboard crates sitting side by side atop my mattress. "We're gonna need more boxes from the car."

I furrowed my brow, approaching them. "But I thought I'd only need one. How'd you fill them _both_ up already?"

Lea shrugged, one side of his mouth turning up. "Just grabbed stuff out of your closet. Anything that'd look cute on you."

I pulled the flaps back on one to peek inside, my eyes widening before hastily opening the other one as well and puffing out a sigh, "You've packed everything that was hanging in there."

"Well, yeah! Cuz _everything_ looks cute on you, El!"

It should be illegal for him to say things like that.

My broiling cheeks seconded that notion.

Slapping the boxes shut again, I huffed, "Fine, we'll run back down to grab more after my father leaves. But you! You're no longer involved in the decision making of what I do or don't bring back, got it? I don't have room for all this junk at my new place," I jabbed a warning finger in his direction, to which he just held up his hands in surrender, smirking and giving me another tiny shrug.

That was the face of zero remorse.

And I couldn't even really get mad about it since he'd only been being his big dumb sweet self again.

Ugh, I didn't even really _want_ all these things. All these clothes that'd been bought and paid for with my parents' munny. This was my new life, my _own_ life free from their control and I wanted to manage it with absolutely _zero_ help from them, nothing, not even so much as a stitch of clothing. The only real reason I'd even come here today was to see Father and set Operation Boyfriend But Shh Not Really in motion. I'd probably just end up giving most if not all of these dresses to charity anyway.

Shaking my head, I glanced about the room. "Now where…? Ah!" I'd spotted what I was looking for - my phone resting on the vanity next to Lea's hand. Probably left there by Anna weeks ago, since she'd been the one holding onto it for me on The Wedding Day That Never Was.

Lea sidestepped out of my way as I moved to pick it up. He gave me a curious look, "The parental units still gonna be paying for your data plan?"

"Doubt it. I wouldn't accept it, even if they offered. Rayne said she can put me on her and Riku's family plan until I've gotten a few more checks from work and can start paying for my own. It'll be nice not having to borrow hers all the time anymore."

...okay, I know I'd just had that little mental spiel about not wanting to accept anything from my parents. But come on now, in this day and age, phones are all but a necessity, not to mention _expensive_. Besides, it's not like I was just going to _take_ it. I planned to reimburse my parents for it… discuss and figure out some sort of payment plan with them that would work with my budget.

"Well in that case," he pulled a black Sharpie from the pen holder on my vanity, biting down on the cap and pulling it off before taking one of my hands in his and turning my palm up so he could write a phone number on it, punctuated with a tiny heart.

I stared blankly at my hand. "Um…?"

He winked at me. "My digits."

Now I stared at _him_ blankly. "I figured, but why?"

"What, you don't think you should have yo man's number on speed dial in your phone?"

"No, that I get, but why," I shoved my palm into his face, "on my _hand?_ "

A tiny snerk through his nose. "How else were you gonna get it? By psychically plucking it outta the air from my mind?"

"No, by having Rayne enter it into my phone after recharging it when I got home," I said flatly.

He blinked, eyes darting to the left. "...alright, point there." Then he chuckled, scratching a spot behind his ear. "I've just always wanted to write my number on a girl's hand. Seemed like a real slick move."

I drooped my eyelids at him. "Was it everything you dreamed it would be, stud?"

"And more!" he beamed.

"You're weird."

"Careful now or all that sweet talk of yours will go straight to my head."

Fighting a begrudging grin, I snatched up the charger from where it lay on the vanity as well and stepped back over to the boxes, slipping it and the mobile in with the folded clothes. Then both my eyebrows shot up my forehead and I glanced back at him. "Wait, you've never written your number on a girl's hand before?"

He blinked back at me, "...no?"

"But Rayne told me what a ladykiller you used to be, and that right there seems like Ladykillers 101."

"Gah, Raindrop," he grumbled under his breath, facepalming. "...those were… you don't really need to exchange numbers when you're just… looking to hookup for a night."

"...oh." I looked away, seriously regretting pulling at this thread.

His hand went to the nape of his neck, tugging at the hairs there. "...I've changed a lot in the last year."

"It sounds like it," I smiled gently at him. Then I exhaled heavily, "Okay… guess I better get back out there then."

"Wait," his hand closed around my wrist as I turned to go, stopping me in my tracks. I gave him a questioning look and he released me, squinting at me and tapping a knuckle to his lips in thought. Then he snapped his fingers and was shrugging out of his leather jacket, holding it out towards me. "Put this on."

My head rocked back slightly, gaze shifting back and forth between him and it a few times. "...but I'm not cold. And we're _inside_. Why would I go back out to Father wearing your jacket?"

"That's the point," his eyes crinkled as he moved closer to me, slipping my arms into it and tugging it on, flipping the collar up. "Make him wonder. It'll drive him batshit. Now scoot," his fingertip booped my nose before he spun me around and gave me a light shove out of my room. I staggered out into the hall, glancing back at Lea as he leaned a shoulder against my door frame. "Go get 'im, tiger."

I shot him a hard stare. "Also not an acceptable pet name in front of my parents."

"Duly noted." His arms folded beneath his chest as he tossed his head towards the living room, "Now go on already, get."

Pressing my lips together into a thin line, I looked straight ahead down the hall, squared my shoulders and started a slow march forward.

Why was I doing all of this again? Oh, right. To get my parents to leave me alone and stop trying to interfere with my life. And wearing Lea's jacket was going to help with that. Somehow. Was still kind of fuzzy on the _how_. The jacket itself smelled strongly of boy - really nice smelling, cinnamon-spiced boy. It was actually kind of comforting and was easing my nerves somewhat. So in a way, I guess _that_ was helping. I glanced down at the sleeves as I walked. They were too long, stretching past my hands and hiding the number written in fresh ink on my palm. I suppose that helped a bit too. It would have been awkward explaining it to Father if he had seen it. So in that regard, the jacket was also practical.

So there you have it.

A helpful, comforting, and _practical_ jacket.

...ugh, what was I even doing anymore? Really? Could somebody tell me please? At this point, I was just grasping at straws here.

I stepped back out into the living room to find Father with his back to me as he faced the large windows, staring out onto the balcony and beyond. I gave a polite little cough into my hand to catch his attention, saying, "Sorry to keep you waiting."

"Not at all, I-" he cut himself off as he turned, spotting me. Or, more precisely, me in the _jacket_. He then proceeded to give the thing the darkest look I'd ever seen him give any poor, unsuspecting garment.

Welp. Mission accomplished there I guess.

Whatever the mission had been exactly.

I gnawed on my bottom lip, absently fiddling with the zipper dangling from the left leather sleeve. Then I broke the long stretch of silence with a delicate clearing of my throat. "S-so… about the, uh… about the wedd-"

His hand shot up, stopping my words dead. His face had regained its aloof, impassive mask once more. "Regrettably, we don't have time to properly discuss that matter this visit. I have business elsewhere that I must attend to shortly. I merely came to allow you access to your old condo."

"Oh," I breathed, frowning and quickly looking down at my feet.

"...and to see for myself how you were doing," he added, his voice softening somewhat. Maybe I'd only imagined it however. "Your mother… she's expressed wishes to see you as well."

My gaze lifted once more as I sucked in a tiny breath, feeling hope prickle inside my chest. "Ah… yes, of… of course! I could come visit in a few days or-"

"We're actually having a small family get-together in roughly two weeks' time. A bit of a weekend affair, if you will. I think it would be for the best if you came by then. We could set aside time to discuss your actions between the festivities. Of course, your… your _friend_ ," he tried, really did try, to restrain the curl of distaste to his lips here, but wasn't quite fully successful, "is extended the invitation as well."

"You're too kind, Pops!" Lea's chipper voice sounded from behind me even as I'd been opening my mouth to respond. Before I could turn to look at him, I felt his grip on my arm tugging me and I stumbled backwards into his chest where he proceeded to hug my shoulders from behind and nuzzle his cheek against mine. "We wouldn't miss it for the world!"

How I had yet to suffer a heart attack during this entire little excursion was beyond me.

Once again, the words 'Conceal, don't feel,' chanted like a desperate prayer through my mind as I grasped his arm, hiding my flushed face in the crook of his elbow. Those three little words were starting to blur together into gibberish and lose all meaning, I'd recited them so much at this point.

Father fixed us with a long, unblinking stare and he'd gone so still, I could have sworn he'd turned to solid stone for a second there. But at last, he managed a, "Wonderful." I seriously doubt he meant that. "We look forward to seeing you both there." That either. "Well then... I'll just leave this here," he deposited the key onto the dining table, "should you decide you need to come back at a later date for more of your belongings. If and when we decide to sell the unit, we'll be sure to let you know. I'll be in touch shortly with further details of the upcoming gathering, otherwise I'm sure your sister will be only too happy to pass along the information as well."

"Thank you… Father," I muffled into Lea's arm.

He bowed his head slightly. "Right then, well… I must be off."

"T'was lovely to make your acquaintance," I could all but hear the smirk in Lea's voice as Father turned to go.

He froze, posture reaching new magnitudes of stiffness previously thought impossible. "...likewise," was all he said after a beat, not even looking back before striding out the front door, clicking it shut behind him.

And just like that, he was gone.

"I think that went rather well," Lea said brightly, not yet removing his arms.

I sighed, unconsciously relaxing a bit back into his chest. "I guess. Though I was kind of hoping we'd be able to air everything out today so it'd be all over and done with... I suppose I should be glad he didn't just disown me on the spot, for whatever that's worth. This thing he's invited us to though… it makes me uneasy."

His hair tickled as he turned his head to look at me. "What makes you say that?"

A small frown marred my face. "I don't know… it's probably nothing, just me being paranoid. I guess… all we can do is go, continue to put on this little performance and see what happens." My eyelids drooped, "Speaking of which, we really need to get on setting those ground rules for PDAs."

He swiftly released me now, taking a step back and holding his arms up like a criminal caught red-handed, "Sorry, did I cross a line with that one?"

I turned to face him but didn't quite meet his gaze. I knew that if I did in this precise second, I might be setting a new world record for number of blushes per minute, or BPM if you will. Feeling I'd done enough of that for one day, I looked everywhere but directly into his eyes, fingers plucking at my braid. "Not… exactly. I just… need to be forewarned on these things… know what I'm getting into, so they don't, ah… catch me off guard in the future."

"Oh, so _that's_ why you were such an awkward walnut the whole time," he laughed, moving over to one of the couches and flopping down unceremoniously onto it, kicking his boots up on the immaculate, glossy finish of the coffee table. "Thought that was a little weird. You acted like a guy's never given you snuggles and affection before."

My lips twisted to one side and I said nothing.

His eyes widened and he sat up straighter. "You gotta be pulling my leg here. You were dating the guy, your _fiancé_ , for what... five years was it? What were you two even _doing_ that whole time?"

Grimacing, I made my way over to sit on the opposite end of the sofa from him. "The thing is, my ex… he was never really a fan of romantic gestures, big or small. Especially not in front of other people."

"Seriously?" he looked positively offended at the very idea. "He had to at least hug you in public, right?" I hesitantly shook my head. "Brush your hair back behind your ear?" A pause, then a second small shake. "Shit, for the love of- hold your hand?" Annnnd a third. "Please, _please_ tell me he at least kissed you."

So much for not making it into the Guinness book for the most BPM. With a tiny scowl, I said, "Well, of course he did. Though… mostly only behind closed doors. But he'd take me on dates to fancy restaurants, art galas, the opera... oh, and he'd occasionally tuck my hand into the crook of his elbow when we were out." It almost sounded like I was trying to defend him now. "And he'd… uh…" Huh. Guess that about covered it. "...well, he just thought such things to be garish, empty gestures that were unnecessary," I finished lamely.

Lea gaped at me. "...and you were gonna _marry_ this guy? Dude sounds like a fucking idiot."

I looked at him sharply. "Excuse me?"

"Sorry, it's just…" he frowned now, leaning forward in his seat and planting his elbows on his knees, rubbing his arm. "El, you deserve better than that. Someone who'll worship the ground you walk on. Ya know… rose petals, white doves, the whole cornball, cheesy works."

"Oh." Would you look at that? Not two seconds and I'd already shattered the new BPM record I'd _just_ set. I was really going to need to get this whole face heating situation under control, this quite simply would not fly anymore. "...th-thank you?"

He cleared his throat and propped his cheek in his palm, looking at me sideways. "No wonder you were weird about all that stuff I did. You've never really been all that touchy-feely with a guy before, huh?" He grinned, "Good news is we got two weeks to practice."

I cocked my head slightly. "Practice?"

"Yup!" He scooched over closer to me, nudging my shoulder with his. "We threw ya into the deep end before you were ready. Now we gotta rewind and actually teach you how to swim. And you know a good place to start? Learning by example."

"Which means…?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Observing some of the local wildlife perform their ritualistic mating displays in their natural habitat. That's right, you guessed it: couple-watching in the food court!"

* * *

_**Author's Note:** _ _Our couple is off to a rocky start! But it's to be expected with what an awkward penguin Elsa is. She was not built for this! But she'll get there… maybe xD They got 2 weeks to figure it out anyway… 2 whole weeks of fluff, mwahaha! Yeah, we're gonna take a lil detour off the Plot Highway here to make a stop in the good ol' town of Fluffville for the next several chapters xD Also, Elsa's dress this chapter is loosely based on her Let It Go ice dress - the silhouette of it is at least (I think I used that fashion term correctly…). Lea's outfit is based on nothing, I just wanted to make him... smokin' hawt ;D ALSO, Elsa's dad isn't as nice a guy in this as he seems to be in the Frozen movies, but you all probably figured that was coming with the way he's been talked about the whole story thus far. To be fair, Elsa's parents in the movie could be considered a bit controlly with how they made Elsa suppress her powers, so just consider how he is in this story a twist on that from the movies xD Yet another also: Cliff (the doorman) is apparently the name of one of the rock trolls in the movie, so I figured, SURE, why not, let's name the doorman that! And one more also (last one, I swear!) - I'd run out of KH:BBS official ice cream flavors by this chapter. The one named in this chapter (based on Lilo and Stitch if it weren't obvious) was one my friend (who I'm borrowing Rayne from) came up with! I imagine it's description up on the Ice Palace menu would read something like "It's got all the punch of Hawaii's tangy fruit flavors and a little bit of Elvis for kicks! Naturally it's blue as the sea with bits of Hawaiian fruit in the center!" In any case, by the next time I needed to come up with an ice cream flavor name later on in this story, I'd figured out a new source list to pull from, as you'll all discover very soon!_

_Thank you so much for reading, especially to those of you who have left a kudos and shared with me your thoughts and feelings on this story so far! Remember, feedback is not only welcome, but highly encouraged and super appreciated!_


	16. Chapter 16

"No joke, you can for real get us the stuff?"

Rayne grinned over at Anna as the three of us walked side by side. "For real. I got a girl on the inside who can hook us up."

Her gaze narrowed dubiously, "Don't play me. I've been friggin' jonesing for a fix since March."

"You know I'm good for it, sweetpea," she slung an arm around her shoulders. "Trust me. My word is my bond, ya dig?"

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I puffed out a heavy sigh and grumbled, "You two are ridiculous."

A scoff from Rayne, "You'll be singing a different tune once that sweet, sweet ambrosia is warming your belly."

Rolling my eyes, I took another quick glance around the food court as we crossed it.

Still no Lea.

Boy couldn't get here fast enough.

Also, boy better hurry, seeing as how there was less than an hour left before my shift started.

My thumb absently rubbed the spot where his phone number still branded my palm as we finished crossing the sea of plastic tables and chairs, coming to a stop in front of the Lucky Cat. Working behind the register today was someone I hadn't seen before. A boy with a bandaid on one cheek and short, choppy brown hair sticking out from beneath the baseball cap he was wearing backwards.

Wait…

I squinted.

…or maybe _he_ was actually a _she_. Hard to say. They were really quite androgynous, whoever they were.

Rayne smiled at us and held up a finger, indicating for us to just watch and wait. Then she stepped forward, approaching the counter. "Sup, Miharu! We're here to see…" she paused, looking around to make sure there were no eyes on her that shouldn't be, then she hunched forward and lowered her voice to a whisper, "...Spellweaver."

The coffee purveyor of indeterminate gender said nothing for several seconds, just fixed her with a dull stare. "...she's in the back, just a sec," they at last huffed before turning and disappearing through the door behind them.

"Spellweaver…?" Anna arched an eyebrow at Rayne.

She nodded solemnly, "The street name she goes by for all of her shady backdoor dealings."

"Oh good grief," I massaged one temple with my fingertips. Deciding to steer this conversation towards something a little less silly while we waited for… ugh, _Spellweaver_ to show up, I asked Anna, "So you really have no clue what Mother and Father are planning for this whole weekend family outing thing they're inviting us to?"

"Zip," she popped the P as she shrugged. But then she was crinkling her nose with a frown, "Weaseltown's gonna be there though."

I hugged myself, shuddering. "Thanks, that does _not_ reassure me."

"Relax! Dad's probably just gonna be all, " she gave a lofty sniff, raised her pinkie and deepened her tone in what I had to admit was a pretty good impression of our father, "let's just put this nasty bit of business behind us, bygones and whatnot, chip chip cheerio."

"You are aware he's not British, right?" my eyelids drooped at her. I couldn't resist a tiny grin though and exhaled slowly, "...you really think he'll be that forgiving?"

"Of course! Well... that or he'll be all," up that pinkie went again as she scowled, "how dare you throw your life away like this, young lady, disgracing the family name thusly! I will not stand for it, pish posh!"

"...not helping."

Rayne shushed us as the back door behind the counter swung open again and that Miharu person returned. "Your weirdo friends are here to feed their disgusting habit," they deadpanned, speaking to their coworker that'd also come striding out behind them, presumably none other than the infamous Spellweaver.

Aka Aqua.

I should have guessed.

Gaze darting about again to ensure the coast was still clear, Rayne rapped her knuckles against the countertop, tapping out the beginning of "shave and a haircut." Aqua gave a good natured snort before responding with two knocks herself, delivering the punchline to the tune.

Seriously? What was that supposed to be, some sort of code? This was just getting more absurd by the second.

"What're you ladies in the market for today?" Aqua asked, propping an elbow onto the counter.

"We're here for… the _Spice_ ," Rayne put heavy emphasis on the word, giving her a wink that was the very antithesis of subtle. "You still got your super special secret stash?"

"Maybe," she inspected her fingernails, casually bouncing one shoulder. "You know I only stock the primo kind too. But stuff's not easy to come by this time of year. If I did have it, supplies would be getting _pretty_ low. It'll cost ya. You got the munny?"

Anna suddenly pushed forward, grabbing Aqua by the front of her apron and yanking her down to her eye level, "Yeah yeah, you got the goods or what, bitch?!"

"Anna!" I snapped, horrified.

"What?! I was just playing along with the bit!" she defended, immediately releasing her grip.

Aqua gingerly smoothed the wrinkles out of her apron and fixed her crooked visor, "Normally just the munny and a please would suffice."

"Was your sister seriously just about to straight up shank Aqua over some coffee?" a low, amused voice said right next to my ear, making me jump. I spun around, discovering Lea snerking behind me as he straightened back up. Xion and Roxas were with him too, looking dressed to be on the clock shortly.

There was a tiny harrumph from Anna, "Everyone knows you don't get between a white girl and her pumpkin spice latte!"

That's right.

That's what this whole foolishness had been over.

Pumpkin frigging spice.

"Three please," Rayne asked sheepishly, handing Aqua the munny and shoving a hefty tip into the jar for good measure. Then she sighed at Anna, "We can't take you anywhere."

"It was a friggin' _bit!_ "

"Hey, so," Roxas piped up, drawing my attention to him as he smirked. Xion bounced on the balls of her feet beside him, looking positively ready to burst with giddiness as Roxas leaned forward, "...are you like our new mommy?"

I blinked, "Wha-?" Then yelped as Xion, apparently no longer able to contain her excitement, threw herself at me with a squeal and squeezed me in a bone crushing hug.

"I'm _so_ happy for you two!" Her death grip tightened and I wheezed, looking to Lea for help. He just grinned wider at me and shrugged. The useless punk. Thankfully, Xion pulled back, seizing me by the shoulders instead. "Tell me _everything!_ How did it happen? _When_ did it happen? Was it love at first sight? Gah, I still can't believe you two kept it a secret for so long and even guilt tripped me over that harmless lil car prank, you jerk!" she punched Lea in the arm, forcing him to hiss out a pained "ow."

Served him right.

The abrupt sound of someone noisily clearing their throat cut through the air. We turned to find a lanky guy with wavy, ash blonde hair down to his shoulders standing nearby, his lavender eyes giving us a pointed look. "Pardon me, if you would…?"

Apparently we were blocking his path to the Lucky Cat register where Miharu was currently stationed at.

"Oh!" realization struck Xion and she hurried out of the way, dragging me with her.

"Thank you," he bowed his head to us before sauntering up to the cash register with a sly grin, "Well well, don't you look absolutely ravishing today, my fiesty little barista of love."

"Bite me, Joshua," Miharu ground out flatly.

"Only if you insist," he purred.

I was distracted from that exchange by a steaming to-go cup suddenly popping up barely an inch in front of my nose, making me stagger back a step. "Here ya go, sweetie!" Rayne chirped from behind the latte she was offering me.

"Thanks," I mumbled as I took it, giving her a tiny and somewhat dazed smile as I struggled to keep up with the whirlwind of activity going on around me. Too many different things were going on at once and it was all just a lot, okay?

"Ah!" Anna sighed loudly and happily after taking a long, deep swig from her pumpkin spiced beverage. "Pure heaven!"

"Amen, sister!" Rayne cried, chugging some of her own. Then she gasped, snagging Anna's arm and gesturing towards the Ice Palace. "Look! Kristoff's on shift! Think you can work your feminine wiles and score us some free sundaes?"

"Ray-Ray, please. You worked your magic, now watch me work mine. Hold my drink." She handed her cup to my roomie, cracked her knuckles and skipped off, singsonging, "Yoohoo, Kristoff!"

That poor boy was about to get played like a fiddle.

Rayne spared a look my way, grinned and elbowed my arm before casting a significant glance towards Lea. "Have fun," she half whispered, half giggled to me before running off after Anna.

"We should probably get going too, Xion. Gotta punch in," Roxas said as he eyed the massive overhead clock on the other end of the food court.

"Aw man," she whined, looking from him to me. "Fine. But you and me? We're gonna talk more later, got it?" she brightened, giving my arm a squeeze before joining Roxas who waved goodbye to us as the two of them walked off towards Pizza Planet.

Lea shook his head with a soft chuckle as he watched them go, saying to me, "Ignore them. The kiddos are just super happy for us lovebirds."

"Oh." I looked down at my to-go cup, fingers fidgeting with the lid. "So you got a chance to talk to them about it."

"Didn't really have to. I think that bit of theatrics between Anna and your crazy uncle the other day spoke for itself. Whole food court's been abuzz." He flashed me a big smile, shrugging, "Face it, El. We're the new hot topic."

"R-really?" I stammered, doing my best to stop the blush I felt creeping up my neck dead in its tracks. I'd nearly forgotten about that whole embarrassing scene. I think I'd been subconsciously trying to block it out, pretend it'd all been a bad dream.

"Don't worry. It'll become old news pretty quick and chatter'll die down."

"I hope so," I frowned, taking a careful sip of my warm latte. I hated being the center of attention and having people talk about me.

"So…" his eyes crinkled as he took a step closer to me now, plucking the cup from my grasp and depositing it onto a nearby table so he could take both my hands in his. Tracing his thumbs in light circles along my knuckles, he murmured, "Hi."

That blush I'd been keeping at bay? Just called in reinforcements and broke through the bloody barricades. "...hi."

His eyes briefly flicked to our right, discreetly calling attention to the fact that Aqua was grinning at us as she prepared a mocha order. Ah, message received. We had an audience. And an audience demanded a show, one which Lea seemed only too glad to put on as he now brought my hands to his lips, placing a gentle kiss on the back of each one. "Didja miss me?"

My stomach flip-flopped. No, scratch that, it was doing goddamn somersaults like a gold medal gymnast on a set of uneven bars at the Olympics. Panicking a little, I hastily looked away and blurted out, "Miss you? Please, I just saw you yesterday. It hasn't even been twenty-four hours yet, I haven't had _time_ to miss you."

What? I didn't know how to _do_ the whole lovey-dovey thing, real, pretend or otherwise! Honestly, I was beginning to think it just wasn't genetically coded into my DNA.

He tsked. "That's not what you were supposed to say."

I gave him some side-eye. "What was I supposed to say?"

"Hm, I dunno… something like," he transferred his grip to my wrists, pulling my hands up to cup his cheeks, "how much you longed to see this gorgeous face again and how you cried yourself to sleep just counting the seconds until you could look upon its beauty once more."

"...I am _not_ saying that."

"Huh," he smirked down at me. "Funny how ya didn't deny it though. Don't worry, we can work our way up to it."

I snorted. "Don't count on it."

A tiny laugh came from the Lucky Cat. With him still holding my hands to his face, we both looked over to see Aqua hiding a smile behind her fingers. She shook her head, "Sorry, pretend I'm not here. You two are just very cute."

I jerked my wrists free of his grasp and opened my mouth to say we most certainly were not. However, Lea was faster with a chipper, "We know!" With that, he picked up my drink once more, slipping his free hand into mine and cooed, "Let's go, shnookums," before walking off with me in tow.

Stumbling a few steps before matching his stride, I glanced back to make sure we were out of earshot. Then I looked at him. "No."

He cocked an eyebrow. "No what?"

My nose scrunched up. "Shnookums."

"Yes, sugarplum?"

I blanched. "No, that's not- I wasn't calling _you-_ " I sighed, recomposing myself. "I was saying no to that pet name. Sugarplum's out too."

Lea pouted, "Aw, but they're classics. You sure you want to keep vetoing all of these? Pretty soon I'll have to start thinking outside the box."

"I'll take my chances."

"Suit yourself, don't say I didn't warn ya though." He then nodded to my cup, lifting it up slightly, "May I?"

"Uh…" I blinked. "...sure, go for it."

He took a sip then abruptly stopped us in the middle of the food court tables. "Shit, that's _actually_ pumpkin spice. I thought your sister was only joking. October is still months away, how'd you guys manage to get your hands on this?"

My mouth pursed to one side. I can't believe I was about to say this. "...I know a gal who knows a gal."

A snerk huffed out through his nostrils. "Aren't you legally required to be wearing a trench coat and in a dark alley to say something like that?"

One corner of my lips twitched up despite myself as I took the latte back from him, "Was fresh out of trench coats."

"Well then, guess we'll just have to settle for this instead," he gripped the bill of my Ice Palace cap, twisting it sideways.

"Hey!" I swatted his hand away and spun my hat forward again. "I've got connections, I'm not a _rapper_. There's a _difference_."

"I know. I just really wanted to do that." His hand snaked up again, tweaking my cap to the left now. "Boyfriend privileges. Sorry, I don't make the rules."

Sighing, I straightened it again. "I've given you too much power. You're having way too much fun with this."

"No such thing." He went for the hat yet again but I caught his hand this time, narrowing my eyes at him. He grinned, shifting the hold so our fingers interlocked together instead, causing my heart to give a little flitter.

Then he used his other hand to turn the cap to sit sideways once more.

I drooped my eyelids at him. "I'm going to throw this drink in your face."

"And waste perfectly good pumpkin spice? For shame!" he chided playfully, thankfully having the common decency now to correct my hat back to the way it was supposed to be.

Ugh, this guy. Of all the people Anna could have shoved me into the arms of in front of the Duke on that fateful day, why'd it have to be him? I'm sure she'd only picked the nearest testosterone toting individual who just so happened to be strolling by in that exact moment but jeez, why couldn't it have been, oh I don't even know… Kristoff perhaps? Kristoff would have taken this more seriously. Kristoff I didn't have a maybe sorta crush on. Kristoff wouldn't have had my face toasting every ten stupid seconds. Seriously, I swear Lea had made me blush more in the past several weeks that I'd known him than I'd ever done in the rest of my entire life combined. I'm not sure who that said more about - Lea or my ex.

Shaking my head at him, I prompted, "So you said something yesterday about coming here to do some couple-watching?"

"Oh, right. Almost forgot." Lea glanced about at the shoppers enjoying their meals all around us. "Lessee here, who do we got…?"

"Why not Riku and Rayne? I mean, I live with them and they're in on the secret, I'm sure they'd be happy to coach us or whatever." I began to lift my drink towards my mouth but stopped it a few inches short, staring down at it with a tiny frown.

"Nah, they're not just a couple, they're _married_. Married is a whole different animal from dating. Trust me, what we're looking for is a cutesy-wootsy boyfriend-girlfriend dynamic duo." He took a break from scanning the area to focus on me once more, noticing the look I was now giving my cup. He quirked an eyebrow, "Problem?"

My eyes flicked to his lips, then returned to my latte. Then back and forth once, twice more.

...oh grow up! It's not like the boy had cooties!

"Not at all," I muttered, hiding my small scowl behind the cup as I finally took a sip, telling myself that the slight warmth I felt in my cheeks was only due to the heat of the beverage, nothing more. "What about them?" I asked hastily, gesturing back towards the Lucky Cat where... Joshua, was it? Was still talking to Miharu. "They're a couple." He was leaning across the countertop with a devilish little smirk, bringing their faces really close. Miharu, on the other hand, looked about ready to grab the nearest banana walnut muffin from their display case and shove it up his nose. I furrowed my brow, "...aren't they?"

He followed my gaze. "Who, them? Those two are… _complicated_. What they got going on seems to work for them, but it's not exactly the type of Hallmark romance we want to be emulating in front of your folks. No, we want too adorable and precious for this world. We want pure, unadulterated wholesome on a stick. We want cavity-inducing sweetness. We want…" once more, his eyes were darting from one table of mall-goers to the next until at last his face lit up and he pointed, "...them! Perfect!" And off he went again, dragging me with him.

We wove our way past several tables before coming to a halt at one in particular, seated at which was-

"Kairi? Sora?" I blinked at them and they both looked up at the sound of their names.

"Oh, hey guys!" Sora hit us with the full force of that blinding smile of his.

"Hiya!" Lea chirped, pulling out a chair for me. "Mind if we join you two?"

"Please," Kairi nodded enthusiastically, twisting her chopsticks into her chow mein that looked to be from Mushu's Kingdom. "Be our guest!"

I'm sorry, but couple- _watching_ and couple- _interacting_ were two completely different things. This is _not_ what I'd signed up for. Still, I took the seat with only the barest hint of hesitation, feeling Lea push it in behind me before he grabbed the one next to me, spinning it one-eighty on one leg so he could plop down into it backwards.

Eyes dancing, Kairi spoke up again, "So, to what do we owe the pleasure of being joined by the Dusk Town Center's newest It Couple?"

"...It Couple?" I echoed, arching an eyebrow as I put my drink down in front of me, fingers fidgeting with the coffee sleeve.

"Told ya, El!" Lea chuckled, folding his arms atop the table, his elbow coming to rest against mine. "Everyone's talking about us. Can you blame them though? We _did_ have a rather dramatic debut."

"Oh gosh," I smothered my face in my hands.

"Nothing to be embarrassed over, you're fine!" Kairi giggled, then glanced smugly over at Sora. "Plus, I got to tell this loser here that I'd told him so!"

He rolled his eyes, grin never wavering. "Lucky guess. You had no way of knowing they were already dating."

"Woman's intuition," she razzed her tongue at him, tapping her chopsticks to her temple. "It's never wrong."

Welp. It was wrong this time. Lucky for her, Lea and I had a cover to maintain. Good thing too, I don't know if I'd have had the heart to tell her otherwise and burst her bubble.

"Besides," she tacked on, slurping up a noodle, "it's always been plain as day for anyone to see on Lea's face. He has that whole lost puppy look going on whenever she's around."

"I don't have a lost puppy look," Lea scratched the back of his head with a sheepish laugh before glancing my way and insisting, "I _don't._ "

Sora sniggered, "Yeah, Kai, I think that's just the way his dopey face always loo- _ow!_ " That last part was in response to Lea reaching across the table to flick him in the forehead.

Ignoring the boys, Kairi sighed dreamily, "It's all just so sweet! Like some sort of modern day, food court, Shakespearian romance! One from House Pizza, the other from House Ice Cream, two star-crossed lovers defying all odds to be together!"

...okay, why were we here again?

"It's not like we're from two warring families locked in a blood feud." Lea snorted and muttered, "House Ice Cream and House Pizza… what even?"

"Shush, I was being poetic!" Kairi harrumphed before lightly slapping Sora's hand away as he tried to steal some of her chow mein.

Rubbing his sore knuckles, he whined, "Aw c'mon, Kai, all this food talk is making me hungry!"

"You've already eaten twice your weight in orange chicken, you big goob!" she shot back. But when he gave her the saddest pout in the history of all mankind - nay, the history of all _existence_ \- her shoulders slumped and she relented, stabbing her chopsticks into the noodles and twirling them, "Fine, open up, doofus."

He immediately perked up and parted his lips wide. Having wrapped a sizable portion around her sticks now, she gently eased it into his awaiting mouth. For all the care she took though, some sauce still managed to get on the corner of his lips as he started to chew. Kairi gave a soft _tch_ and told him, "Hold still." Then she took his chin between her fingers, bent forward and kissed the smudged side of his mouth, leaving it clean by the time she'd pulled back, licking her lips with a tiny smirk.

Sora swallowed his food. "Thanks, bae!" he beamed, bowing his head towards hers and nuzzling the tips of their noses together, eliciting a titter from her.

Oh. Right. _That's_ why we were here.

These two were cavity-inducing alright. I think I was already feeling my teeth begin to rot just by being within a five foot radius of them. Dear lord, I don't think I could ever be like that, especially not where _people_ could see us.

...was Lea suggesting I act this way?

I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye, watching as he stretched a hand across the table towards Kairi's tray and dipped a finger into some of the excess chow mein sauce on one side of her plate. Lea then proceeded to dab the goo onto his nose, plant his elbow on the table, prop his chin in his palm and lean towards me with a cheshire grin, eyes hooded and eyebrows bouncing.

Apparently, yes. That's _exactly_ what he was suggesting.

I stared blankly at him.

Yeah, no. Not happening, pal.

"Worth a shot," Lea snerked as he reached for a napkin to scrub the smear off with.

Kairi bit back a smile, "D'aww, she's shy! That's adorable!"

"That's my baby! Wouldn't have her any other way!" he tweaked my nose with a wink.

"Oh! I just had a great idea!" Kairi clapped her hands together. "Tomorrow night, Sora and I were gonna go out with Riku and Ray. Nothing fancy, just dinner and a movie. But what if you two joined us as well and turned our double date into a triple? How fun would that be?"

I don't know… dinner _and_ a movie? She was asking a lot of little ol' hermit me. Maybe _too_ much.

Lea looked to me, pressing his shoulder into mine. "How 'bout it, El?"

...well… I guess… for the sake of practice…

I gave the couple across from us a shy smile. "What time were you thinking?"

Taking that as a yes, Kairi cried out in delight. "Awesome! We're all meeting up at six. You can get the deets from your roomies!" She then picked up her phone to check the time. "Crap," she hissed, jumping up to her feet, "gotta run! Selphie's gonna murder me for taking too long on my lunch break!"

"Wait up, I'll walk you back," Sora called, taking the opportunity to snatch up the chopsticks she'd dropped and shovel what was left of the chow mein down his throat faster than should have been humanly possible. Then he grabbed the tray and hopped up as well, cheeks bulging with food as he muffled out, "See ya guys tomorrow!" before taking off after his girlfriend.

"So…?" Lea asked, one side of his mouth turning up as he stole another sip from my pumpkin spice latte.

I gave a small, incredulous laugh, "No. Also? No. No, no, no. No. Did I mention no? Because just in case I didn't… no. And just for good measure: no. So in conclusion? _No_."

"Pfft," he rubbed a hand over his lips. "Well I understand if they may seem a bit… _advanced_ to you…"

"Advanced?" I scoffed. "Try critical mode. I had no idea such couples existed outside of children's storybooks starring princesses and prince charmings. Do they even know they're in the real world and not some fairytale?"

Lea's head tipped to one side. "...you do realize that was some pretty basic boyfriend-girlfriend stuff… right?"

A crease formed between my eyebrows. "You mean that was _normal?_ "

"Well," he averted his gaze, scratching his cheek, "...all couples vary and do things differently. But I wouldn't say Kairi and Sora are _abnormal_. There's a lotta couples out there that are just as disgustingly cute as they are, if not more so."

I bit down on my lower lip and hunched forward onto my elbows, clasping my hands in front of my face just beneath my nose. How was it I'd been in a relationship for five years and was just now figuring out that I didn't have the first clue when it came to dating? "...my ex and I were never anything like that. Not even close."

"And that," he struck up a finger, "works out in our favor. After all, you dumped his sorry ass, one, cuz you weren't in love with him and two, to be with yours truly," his fingers splayed across his chest as he grinned, "a hunky dreamboat you _are_ in love with, or so the story goes. Now it shouldn't be too hard to sell that to your folks, given your former beau has set the bar so pathetically low for us."

"But I don't know if I have it in me to…" I trailed off, my hands clenching to each other more tightly. "...if I'm even _wired_ to be such an absolute… googly-eyed, twitterpated… _mess_ like those two were." My insides squirmed at the very idea.

"No problemo!" Lea jabbed a thumb into his collarbone, "I can be enough of a googly-eyed, twitterpated mess for the both of us!" He stiffened, then coughed into his fist, "That is, I mean… ya know, for the sake of appearances. If that'd be okay with you, of course."

He was talking about him being, erm… how had he put it the other day? Ah yes… _touchy-feely_. My eyes darted to the right. "I suppose… for appearances… as long as I have time to get used to it all and there are no more surprises."

"Speaking of, we never really did get around to going over those PDA guidelines for what gets a green light and what's a big fat no-no."

I stared down at the cup, my finger idly circling the rim of the lid. "...what did you have in mind?"

"Maybe we should start by knocking out the most obvious one." I glanced up at him now, waiting for him to elaborate. His grin faltered almost imperceptibly, "You know, the big K?" I merely quirked an eyebrow at him. Eyes shifting about, Lea cleared his throat, "...kissing?"

"Not on the lips." The words sprung from my mouth faster than I could think them, causing me to clamp a hand over it in embarrassment.

But come on now, my brain had had a full system hard crash when the guy had planted an innocent little peck on just my forehead yesterday! I couldn't even begin to fathom what a real, honest-to-god kiss on the lips might do to me. Let's not forget how poorly I'd handled the Kissident and I hadn't even _known_ the guy yet, much less potentially had _feelings_ for him!

He blinked, then snorted and shook his head at me. "Nah, I'd already figured that would be a total no-go. Which is no biggie, lotsa couples out there aren't comfortable sucking face in front of prying eyes. But uh…" he rubbed at the nape of his neck, "What I have been doing… back of the hand, forehead… pretty much any other exposed bit of skin, that all fair game?"

Gosh, this was a weird conversation to be part of. Not to mention awkward. I could already feel my blush from earlier waiting backstage, eager to make an encore performance. Looking away, I said, "That, uh… y-yeah, okay."

It should be fine.

If I allowed myself to get used to it, of course.

Though that was kind of a _big_ if.

"Okay…" A slow smile was breaking out across his face and he repeated, "Okay, good. Onto the next item of business then: hugs. Yea or nay?"

Jeez, this suddenly felt so official. And yet, slightly silly at the same time somehow. I ventured, "...y-yea?"

"You sure?" his finger tapped the tip of my nose. "You don't sound too confident there."

"No, it'll be fine," I said quickly. With proper mental and emotional fortifying, I hopefully could and would survive this. _Hopefully_.

"Alright," his eyes crinkled as he studied me for a beat. Then, "What about this?" He reached a hand for where mine lay palm down against the table, his touch grazing along my knuckles before softly tracing down the lengths of my fingers. "...kinda like hand holding, but a lil fancier," he murmured, lifting my hand up so he could brush his fingertips to mine for a few seconds before gently flattening our palms together, lazily weaving and unweaving our fingers. "Something for idle hands to be doing when we're just hanging out. That okay?" he asked, still lightly toying with my fingers.

This had no right to be spiking my heart rate the way it was. Not trusting myself to talk as it would probably come out more of a squeak right now, I settled on a tiny nod.

He smirked as he eased my hand back down to rest atop the table once more. "...and this?" Lea gripped one of my chair legs, pulling me closer to him. Then his arm stretched out past my cheek, reaching behind my head so he could sweep my ponytail forward over my shoulder. There, he wasted no time twisting the end of a lock around one finger, playing with the pale strands of hair. "...yea or nay?" he prompted again somewhat distractedly, green eyes locked on his hand as it slowly ensnared itself further.

Was there less oxygen in the room? I swear there had to be less oxygen. Why else was it getting so hard to breathe all of a sudden? Must be all that damn deforestation going on out in the world. Curse all those big evil corporations and their blatant disregard for the environment!

Licking my dry lips, I nodded again, hesitantly at first, then putting more force behind it. "Mm… mm-hm! T-that should be… sh- _shouldn't_ be a problem." I withdrew my hands into my lap, folding and unfolding them only to fold them again. "After all, we ah… must maintain appearances, of course."

"Of course," his grin twitched wider. "So then, what about this?" Carefully disentangling his fingers, he lifted his hand to tuck my bangs behind my ear as he started to lean forward, his face closing in towards mine.

_Conceal, don't feel!_

Remember, this? This was just… just an _act_. We were in the middle of a very busy food court. He was merely putting on a show for the masses. Just playing the role that had been given to him.

...but honestly, did he have to be playing it so goddamn friggin' _well?!_

I swear I could feel every last drop of blood in my body dogpiling up into my face as he closed the distance. The tip of his nose brushed mine and he shifted over to the right at the last second, positioning his mouth next to my ear. My heart hammered wildly, threatening to punch a hole through my ribcage as he inhaled, preparing to whisper something, his lips grazing against my earlobe and-

"Fwunkle-munkle."

My eyebrows twitched and I blinked.

"Splubbet. Squippo."

...were my eardrums broken?

"Flerple. Mubble-whoomp."

I spluttered and snorted. "What are you even _doing?_ "

Lea pulled back just enough to look me in the eye with a cheeky grin. "What's it look like I'm doing? Whispering sweet nothings into your ear, duh!"

My fingers went to my mouth and I choked back a laugh, "More like sweet nonsense."

"Eh, same diff. Now if you'll excuse me, I wasn't quite finished." He bent towards my ear once more, his voice low and breathy as he continued, "Yuppet. Smoorple."

"Stop, that tickles," I was cracking up now, putting a hand to his chest so I could push him away.

He didn't budge, just moved his own hand to cover mine. "Fleegget-smeegget. Kronkle. Pixie Petal."

That last one caught my notice. "As in the ice cream flavor?"

"Mm-hm!" he straightened up now, exiting my personal bubble and crossing his arms atop the back of his reversed chair. His eyes squinted at me and he pursed his lips in thought. "...but no, that's not your fave either. It's all sparkle, no substance. You need _quality_. Nothing but the best for you."

Fighting a grin, I shook my head at him, "You think you know me so well."

His face softened a little as he looked at me. "...I think I'm starting to."

My breath hitched.

Oh dear. Remember that maybe sorta crush I had? I think we could now safely drop the "maybe sorta" part of it.

It was official. I'd gone and caught feelings.

For a man who was totally unavailable at the moment. A man who'd made it clear he was only doing this favor for me as a friend.

This was a dangerous game I was playing. And with someone who was much better at the game than I was, especially when you considered that he didn't even know he was playing it.

My eyes shifted about, alighting on everything and anything that wasn't him before finally landing on the food court clock. "Oh!" I took note of the time and shot up to my feet, the chair scraping along the tiled floor as it pushed out. "My shift's starting soon, I need to get going. Tomorrow then? Yeah, I'll text you once I get the specifics from Rayne. Right. So… until then."

I turned to book it but hadn't gotten more than a step before I felt his hand close around my wrist. I glanced back at him to see him standing now as well, a crooked curve to his lips. "Leaving without a proper goodbye? I don't think so."

He then pulled me back towards him, taking hold of my other wrist as well and bringing both my hands up to cup behind his neck. There he left them, moving his arms down to snake around my waist, hugging me tightly against him as he once more bowed his head down next to my ear. His breath was warm, making me shiver slightly as he whispered, "Wear my jacket for our big date tomorrow. For appearances."

Then he tipped my hat up and smooched my forehead before releasing me, shooting me a wink and walking away with a whistle.

Leaving me a blushing mess leaning against a chair for support, feeling just about ready to go supernova and obliterate all buildings within a ten block radius of me.

Oh yeah. I'd caught feelings all right.

And I didn't like it.

How the hell do I get rid of them?!

* * *

_**Author's Note:** If_ _you didn't recognize where the name came from that I used for the ice cream flavor this chapter, it's the name of a keyblade - the one you get from clearing Neverland in BBS, to be exact! That's right, I've resorted to keyblade names. I think I picked a few good ones too in the chapters ahead! That's all I use for the ice cream flavors from here on out in the story except for ONE of them, and there's a reason behind that one… which I'll only be too happy to explain when we get to it xD_ _Anyhoo, if you were looking at the ice cream menu board, the description for Pixie Petal would probably go something like: "This lime soft serve in a green cone, garnished with white chocolate wings and gold edible glitter is sure to get you thinking happy thoughts!" Annnnnd s_ _ide note: in case you're wondering, no, Miharu is not a character that appears in any of the KH games that you may have forgotten about - she's another OC belonging to my friend who I'm borrowing Rayne from xD She ships Miharu HARD with Joshua from KH:DDD (or more specifically, TWEWY) so I wanted to slip in a brief._

_Thank you so much for reading, especially to those of you who have left a kudos and shared with me your thoughts and feelings on this story so far! Remember, feedback is not only welcome, but highly encouraged and super appreciated!_


	17. Chapter 17

Day three of Operation Boyfriend But Shh Not Really and so far, so good.

Though the thought of this triple date had my inner recluse curling up into the fetal position, I'd manage to convince myself it actually was a good thing when you really thought about it. One, it gave me more practice for trying to do this whole couply… _thing_ I was trying to do. More practice meant I'd eventually, _hopefully_ be more comfortable with it all, as well as less chance for screw-ups in front of my parents when the dreaded but inevitable weekend with them at last came. Two, we were trying to maintain this image of being boyfriend and girlfriend in front of everyone else at the mall. And boyfriends and girlfriends went on dates. What better way to be seen going on said dates than by going out with other _actual_ couples? And three, we couldn't forget about the person the Duke had hired to tail Anna originally and could quite possibly still be keeping tabs on me now. If they were still out there lurking, it was important that _they_ , even more so than anyone else,see me dating.

It was still kind of weird to think about - that an actual, real life PI or whatever had been surveilling me constantly for who knows how long and I'd had no idea. It felt so surreal. _Unreal_ even. But the Duke was absolutely _that_ crazy and I wouldn't put it past him to still have someone keeping an eye on me, looking for any cracks in the story, any slip-ups or mistakes. I'd have to start paying attention more when I was out and about, see if I could figure out who it was, spot any faces that seemed to always show up everywhere I went.

But then, even if I did identify a likely culprit, I would have absolutely no idea what to do with that information once I had it. Even if I marched right up to them and told them their cover had been blown so they may as well scram, the Duke was just insane enough and rich enough to keep hiring new people to do the job instead.

...jeez, I was really starting to sound paranoid now, wasn't I?

With my luck, it'd turn out the Duke no longer had anyone following me after he'd confronted me in the food court.

Best not to think about it too much, because honestly? It'd get me nowhere.

Sighing, I banished the thoughts from my head as I watched the buildings blur past my window from the backseat of Riku's silver Ford Focus. The three of us were on our way to the restaurant now and Lea, Kairi and Sora were going to meet us there. My hand anxiously smoothed out the creases of my outfit - a dark magenta sheath dress with long sleeves and a hemline at the knees. It had a tastefully low v-neckline and a double layered skirt, the top layer made of a shimmering gossamer material. Nice, but nothing too fancy for our "nothing too fancy" date, to use Kairi's words.

Per Lea's request, I'd also worn his leather jacket. It made sense, after all. Nothing screamed "dating" more than one half of a couple wearing their other half's clothes, so it certainly helped maintain the facade. His boy scent still lingered on it, even though he hadn't worn it in a couple of days now, given it had been in my possession. The smell was somehow both soothing and butterflies-in-the-stomach inducing at the same time. It was an odd mix of emotions, to say the least.

I felt a buzz in the jacket's pocket. Pulling out my phone (gosh, it was so weird having one again after going so many weeks without) I checked my notifications to discover I'd received a text.

Well, speak of the devil.

_Still cant believe u didnt lemme come pick u up_

Shaking my head with a small snort, I tapped out a reply to Lea.

_It just made the most logical sense for me to ride with Riku and Rayne since we were all coming from the same place._

Rayne suddenly cried out happily, drawing my attention to her as she clapped and bounced in the front passenger seat. "Ahh, I'm still just so excited for date night! Good food, great company, _hot_ hubby," she slyly pinched Riku's cheek, which he endured with dignity as he drove. "What more could a girl ask for?"

He chuckled as he shifted the car over into the turn lane. "You make it sound like I never take you out."

"You know that's not what I mean!" she playfully smacked his shoulder. "But with the baby on the way, I don't know how many more of these I'll have! This is one of my last chances to enjoy freedom! Jesus take the fucking wheel, hallelujah!"

I felt my phone vibrate in my hand again and I looked down at it.

_I know not this logic u spk of_

I felt a tiny smile pulling at my mouth as my thumbs typed.

_Don't worry about it. Tis beyond your mortal ken._

"I just hope no one's drinking tonight," Riku snerked as I watched those three dots bounce at the bottom of my screen. "Don't need you dancing on any more tables, thank you very much."

"Your _face_ dances on tables!" Rayne shot back, sticking her tongue out at him.

"That doesn't even make any sense."

" _You_ don't even make any sense!"

_Rude. Ill have u know I had half a mind 2 drive ovr n get u NEway, logic b damned_

My smile turned a touch wicked.

_I'm impressed. That's half a mind more than you usually have._

"Here we are!"

My head shot up as I heard the engine shut down. I hadn't even realized we were in a parking lot. I hadn't even realized the vehicle had stopped _moving_.

As I looked out my window again, I heard Rayne saying, "Have I mentioned how happy I am we're doing this?"

"You may have said something about that once or twice." I could hear the smile in Riku's low voice.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see her leaning over towards him, her hand coming up to run slender fingers through his long, ashen strands. "Yeah, but maybe I should _show_ you."

"Maybe you should…"

And that's when I, being the absolute clueless, blissfully naive little fool that I was, chose to turn and fully look at them, just in time to get a front row seat to their little game of tonsil hockey. I blushed, threw up a hand to block my line of sight and made a tiny noise of disgust in my throat. "Ugh! You know you're not the only people in the car, right?"

Rayne pulled away to smirk back at me. "Well, _other_ people can shoo," she flicked a dismissive hand in my direction before grabbing Riku by his collar and yanking him over for a deeper, more passionate kiss. Ding, ding, round two!

Squeaking, I fumbled with my seatbelt until I heard the click release, threw my car door open, stumbled out and slammed it shut behind me with a huff.

Oi, that was the main drawback to this group date plan. We were going to be around actual couples, and actual couples actually, ahem… _snogged_. Rayne and Riku were going to be bad enough, but let's not forget Sora and Kairi were along for the ride too and I'd seen firsthand how gross those two could be as well. Mark my word, this night was going to have more than its fair share of uncomfortable moments with those four around, being all besotted and smitten and other such rot. But I would survive this and make it through to the other side. Somehow.

Sweeping my braid forward over one shoulder, I glanced up at the building before me now. It bore a colorful banner over its entrance that read _Fuente Del Oro_. A local, family-owned Mexican restaurant, or so Rayne had told me. I could already tell this was going to be a very different experience from the types of restaurants my ex used to take me to for our dates. Those restaurants had all been about the look, the prestige… you didn't go to any of those places for the food, you went there to be seen, to give off an air of importance. Those places were… dull. Lifeless. This place before me now, on the other hand, was… nice. Colorful. Vibrant and full of character. Not elegant or frilly, but warm and inviting. And the aromas that I could smell coming from it, even all the way out here? Delicious.

I was actually kind of looking forward to this.

Phone still in my grasp, I looked back down at it and frowned.

No message back from Lea yet.

A giggle suddenly echoed out across the parking lot and my eyes snapped towards the source. It didn't take long to spot Kairi a few vehicles over, squirming and laughing in Sora's arms as he hugged her from behind, blowing raspberries against her neck. They were standing with a very familiar redhead who was leaning against a very familiar black muscle car. Said redhead had pulled his hair back into a ponytail again and was dressed in a snug, black tee with a second shirt on underneath, red and black horizontal stripes running down its full-length sleeves. His slim, dark jeans made his already long legs seem even longer and he was sporting his bright red Converse. He had his phone in hand in front of him, but it wasn't the phone he was looking at. Our eyes met and a grin tugged at one corner of his lips.

Suddenly, whatever boldness that I had felt behind the safety of text on the tiny, glowing screen in the palm of my hand had abandoned me and I felt a small pang of anxiety pierce my chest.

But I rallied.

Alright, Elsa, pep talk time. You can do this. You've been mentally and emotionally preparing for this since yesterday. Let him throw at you whatever fluffy, sappy moves he decides to today, all in the name of pretending to be your boyfriend. You can take it.

Shields raised and at full power, captain!

Inhaling and exhaling slowly, I pocketed my mobile and started making my way over to those three. Probably hearing my footsteps against the asphalt, Kairi and Sora looked over at me as I approached and greeted me with waves. I gave them a shy smile and returned the wave as Lea held his phone up, turning the screen towards me and showing the last message I'd sent him as he tsked, "Brutal. You wound me, madame."

I stopped a few feet away from him, my smile twitching wider. "You like it."

"True. What can I say, I've always been a bit of a masochist," he hummed a low chuckle, slipping his phone into the back pocket of his pants. His head tipped to one side and he stared at me for another second, then his eyes crinkled as he stretched a hand out towards me with a soft, "C'mere."

I bit my bottom lip, hesitating for a heartbeat before moving another step forward to take his offered hand.

"Lookit you," he whistled, closing his fingers around mine and leading me into a little twirl. "Digging the look." He then gently pulled me against him, drawing my arms up to hug his neck before slipping his hands beneath the jacket to wrap around my waist, enveloping me in his cinnamon scent. "Didn't get a chance to say it the other day, but my jacket suits you."

I rolled my eyes up at him, doing my best to be impervious to our sudden closeness. I wasn't succeeding. "Not really. It's too big."

"Yes really," he insisted, bowing his head slightly towards mine. "It looks way better on you than it ever did on me."

"Where's Riku and Rayne?" Sora interjected and I turned my head to look at him.

"They-" my words tripped over my tongue as Lea pressed a tender kiss to my temple.

Critical hit, captain! Shields down to thirty percent, but holding!

Ignoring the heat rushing to my face, I did my best to regather my scattered thoughts. "They, uh… they're back in the, uh… the…" Drat, what was the word again? "... _car!_ They're back in the… the car."

Sora pulled a face. "Swapping spit, no doubt."

"Oh-ho, we'll see about that! C'mon, Sora!" Kairi cackled with an evil gleam in her eye, slipping free of her boyfriend's hold to instead grab his hand and pull him behind her as she ran off towards Riku's car.

"Seriously," Lea spoke up again, his voice hushed as I slowly returned my gaze to his. "Pretty sure I've lost all claim to that jacket. It belongs to you now."

My eyelids drooped. "That's not how that works."

"Sure it is." He rested his forehead against mine and I could feel his thumb rubbing light circles against the fabric of my dress just above my hip. "You don't choose a leather jacket, it chooses you. And trust me, that one has definitely picked you over me."

I gave a soft snort. "I'm giving it back to you after tonight."

"Don't you dare," he chided, his breath warming my lips. "You'll hurt the jacket's feelings."

"Stop anthropomorphizing the jacket." I was fighting a smile now.

"Make me," he murmured, something in his voice causing my insides to do that whole warm, fuzzy, squishy thing.

And the academy award for best leading actor in the role of Elsa's boyfriend goes to this guy right here.

But had to say, I thought he might be overdoing it a bit. I mean, Sora and Kairi weren't even around anymore to hear any of this. And if we were being monitored by someone under my great uncle's payroll, _they_ certainly couldn't hear it either. I suppose Lea just… really liked getting into character?

Clearing my throat, I unclasped my hands from behind his neck and shifted them down to his chest in an attempt to push myself free of his grasp as I whispered, "We, ah… should probably go speak to the hostess now."

However, his hold on me didn't loosen, his arms remaining firmly secured around my waist. He didn't say anything, just continued to grin down at me. His eyes became hooded as they flicked down to my lips now, making my heart skip a beat.

What was he-?

A sudden loud yelp ruptured the air around us.

Rayne.

Followed by an annoyed yell of, "Goddamnit, Sora! _Kairi!_ "

And _that_ would be Riku.

The two delinquents in question blurred past us and towards the restaurant's front doors, whooping and snickering and razzing their tongues back at their victims climbing out of the Ford Focus. "We'll grab us a table!" Sora called quickly at the same time Kairi shouted, "See ya inside!" Then they both disappeared through the entrance with Rayne and Riku hot on their heels.

I heard Lea sigh. Or maybe he didn't. It was so soft that it was fully possible that I imagined it. Then he released me, slipping one hand into mine and jerking a thumb towards the restaurant with a lopsided smile, "Shall we?"

I stared at him, feeling the night air cool my warmed face. Then I gave a tentative nod and let him lead me inside.

The others hadn't made it far past the doors and we stepped in to find Riku doling out Sora's punishment: death by a thousand noogies. Sora was smacking his cousin's arm and trying to wriggle free, but to no avail. Apparently Kairi had gotten off with only a warning for she was standing off to one side with Rayne, both cracking up as they watched the boys. I looked past them, taking in the restaurant. Strings of fairy lights hung from the ceiling intermixed with strings of multi-colored papers, each bearing cutouts depicting various imagery. The walls were painted with murals of fantastical, mythical creatures of various shapes and sizes with wings and prismatic fur, feathers and scales. This place was absolutely beautiful.

Once the roughhousing had finally settled down, we all approached the hostess, an extremely tiny, extremely old lady wearing a name tag that read _Coco_ who seemed far more interested in napping than greeting new customers. However, she woke up long enough to squint at her list and find our reservation before calling over a man to seat us. He led us through the restaurant and to a large booth in one of the back corners, leaving menus, chips and salsa on the table before flashing us a warm, genuine smile and saying he'd be back to take our orders in a minute.

I started shrugging out of the jacket, feeling Lea assist me before folding it over his arm and gesturing towards the booth with bow and a, "Lady's first." Smiling at him, I took a seat and scooched towards the middle. Lea wasn't too far behind, sitting close enough for our knees to bump against one another. He tossed the jacket on the back shelf of the booth before draping his arm across the top of the cushioned seat behind my head. Rayne took the spot to my left with Riku of course beside her, and on the other side of Lea sat Kairi and Sora. The waiter came back after giving us a little time to peruse the menus and he gathered our food requests before dashing off again.

"So Ray," Kairi piped up, popping a heavily salsa-laden chip into her mouth, "how's the preggers-life treating you?"

"Really well," she nodded contentedly, one hand going to her tummy. "The jellybean's happy and healthy so far and I've just started barely showing in the past couple weeks. No weird food cravings yet, thank god, but those are supposed to be right around the corner."

Sora leaned forward, propping his chin in both hands and beamed, "Do we know yet if I have a lil nephew or niece on the way?"

"We're _cousins_ , Sora. Nephews and nieces would only be if we were brothers," Riku corrected with a wry curve to his lips.

"We don't know yet," Rayne shook her head, "but I'm about four months along now, so hoping to find out at our next appointment."

Lea had shifted his hand to dangle down so he could idly twiddle my braid between his fingers. I could also sense his gaze on me, causing a bit of a flutter in the pit of my stomach. Reminding myself he was just playing a part and it wasn't real, I resisted the urge to squirm and instead pretended not to notice, directing all my focus into reaching for a chip to dip into the salsa.

"Well whatever the wee monkey turns out to be, you can bet Auntie Kairi and Unkie Sora will be here to shower it with all the love and kisses!" Kairi cooed.

Riku twitched and frowned. "I just said that isn't how it-"

"Shush, hon, they're just teasing you now," Rayne poked his cheek with a laugh before looking back over at Kairi. "And you? How's the new gig over at Mickey's going? You've been there, what? About a week now?"

"Mm-hm! It's been a lot of fun working the jewelry counter. Oh sure, there's the occasional asshole customer, but turns out I'm _really_ good at killing them with kindness."

Riku kicked Sora's foot under the table, "What about you, ya freeloader? Any prospects yet?"

He shrugged with that big smile he seemed to always have permanently glued to his face. Just looking at it was starting to make _my_ cheeks hurt. "Couple of interviews coming up, so we'll see!"

Smirking, Riku said, "Can't wait to hear how you screw them up this time, knucklehead."

"Hey!"

Kairi turned to look our direction now. "So what's new and exciting with you two, hm? Lea, you just had that big test, right?" Silence was her answer as I went for another chip. "Lea? Hello, earth to... ah-ha, _there!_ " She rocketed up to her feet, slamming one hand down on the table and pointing the other right in Lea's face. "Lost puppy look!"

"Hm, what now?" he jolted, his hand jerking away from my braid to lay across the booth backrest once more. "Lost pup-? Bah, I told you already, there's no lost puppy look. You need to get your eyes checked, princess."

She scoffed, plopping heavily back down into her seat and smugly take a sip of her soda. "Please. You were bad at hiding it when you guys were dating in secret, and you're even worse at it now that it's all out in the open."

"What's the deal there anyhow?" Sora cocked his head at me. "There's all sorts of wild rumors flying around the mall, like that you're runaway royalty from some far off country just living off the lam now."

"What?!" I blanched, gawking in disbelief. Doing my best to recover with a tiny, awkward laugh, I hastily said, "No, nothing quite so, ah… dramatic. My parents, they're… well off, to be sure, but certainly not royalty. And not from so far away either. Just Arendelle, which is only about an hour north of here."

Chewing on her straw, Kairi eagerly leaned in closer, "I'd love to hear the story of how you two met!"

I stiffened.

Fudge.

Welp, add that to my ever growing list of things I should have thought about in advance but failed miserably to do so. I fiddled a chip between my fingers as I tucked in my bottom lip. Shoot, what was I supposed to tell her? It's not like I'd gotten any better at lying in the past few days since my visit with Father. In fact, I'd been mostly skirting by since then by dodging questions and letting people fill in the blanks for themselves so I didn't have to. Heart thudding in my chest, I opened my mouth, not quite fully sure yet what was going to come out.

"Last summer," Lea was quicker. "In another city."

"Oh, during that big cross-country road trip you took?" Rayne asked him as she leaned into her husband who slung an arm around her shoulders.

Lea tapped his own nose, "That'd be the one, Raindrop."

Kairi gasped, "You two met in a foreign city? How romantic! That's the dream!"

"You have to leave the country in order for it to be a _foreign_ city," Riku shook his head.

"Cram it, you knew what I meant!"

"It was like one of those scenes straight outta a movie," Lea planted an elbow on the table, rubbing a curled finger over his smirk as he watched me out of the corner of his eye. "There I was, just strolling along minding my own business, smack dab in the middle of a jam-packed city street. But then the crowd parted and there she stood. The most gorgeous creature to ever walk the face of this or any other planet in all the cosmos."

Cue my face turning all new shades of red never before witnessed in the history of human eyesight.

Jeez, laying it on a bit thick there, Lea, don't you think?

"So whatdja do?" Kairi pressed, eyes bright and on the edge of her seat. "Sweep her off her feet right then and there?"

He snerked, "Shit no, I walked headfirst into a lamppost."

I smothered a grin behind my hand as the rest of the table erupted into laughter. Sora reached over to punch him lightly in the arm, "Smooth, ya stud. What city was this anyway?"

"Corona," I was the one to answer, surprising myself. Suddenly self-conscious with all eyes turning to me, I quietly added, "I was there for part of my vacation last year."

"By yourself?" Rayne quirked a dubious eyebrow at me. She knew this story was as made-up as my current relationship status was. I could only assume she was trying to poke holes in order to help us solidify this little tale that was being spun so we'd be more prepared for the next time we had to tell the lie.

The thing is, the best lies have a grain of truth to them. I really had been in Corona last summer. "No, I was taking the trip with Anna. We were actually staying over in Traverse Town, but had planned to visit Corona for the day to enjoy a festival there, since it was only a short train ride away. However, Anna disappeared with a guy before we could go. I'd really been looking forward to this festival though and didn't want to miss it, so I took the train over on my own."

"Wait," Kairi slapped both hands down in front of her, eyes widening. "Are you talking about that big lantern festival they do every year?" At my nod, she squealed. "Lucky! Punzie has shown me pictures in magazines, it looks so goddamn _pretty!_ Oh man, I've always wanted to go! _Hint, hint,_ " she shouldered Sora, who just chuckled and scratched the back of his head.

"It was actually right as they were launching the lanterns that I saw her," Lea said, folding his arms atop the table now. "She was wearing this cute sundress. White with a lil diamond patterned hem. Split sleeves that were all flowy. Hair down and dancing in the slight breeze." Wow, he was really selling this. He'd even nailed that whole far away look in his eye, like he was seeing something the rest of us couldn't. "And the way those lanterns lit up her smile as she watched them float up, I knew my lowly mortal self was in the presence of a goddess. Knocked the wind right outta me."

"As did that lamppost," Rayne sniggered.

"As did that lamppost," he agreed with a chuckle.

Totally enthralled now, Kairi breathed, "So what happened next?"

"Yeah, what did happen next?" I grinned over at him, the barest note of a challenge to my tone. To the others, it probably just sounded like I was teasing him since obviously I was already supposed to know this story. But now I was almost as invested as Kairi and was genuinely curious where he'd go with it next.

The corners of his eyes crinkled as he looked over at me and he leaned back, propping his elbows up on the back rim of the booth and once more slipping an arm behind my head. "Well after the lantern bit was over, I watched her get onto her train heading back to Traverse Town. So I did what any self-respecting, red-blooded, utterly bewitched male would do: I followed her."

"Stalker," Riku singsonged.

His wife smacked his leg, "Hush, it's sweet!"

He snorted, eyelids drooping, "Yeah, so sweet, the dumbass left his car behind in Corona."

"Psssh, I just took the train back for it later," Lea brushed off. "Anyway, when I found her on board, I sat across from her and worked up the nerve to strike up a conversation."

Rayne looked at me. "You? Talk to a handsome stranger on a train?" She squinted, repeating for emphasis, " _You?_ "

"Heh… what can I say? He can be very charming," I smiled down at my drink, swirling the ice with my straw.

"Even with all of my roguish charm and devilish good looks though, it wasn't easy," Lea laughed. His hand had drifted down to start toying with my braid again. "But she warmed up to me eventually. By the time we arrived at Traverse Town, I was completely smitten. A total goner. She still needed more convincing though, so I managed to persuade her into joining me for a night out on the town. Luckily for me, Traverse Town has a very active night life that goes on for hours long after most other cities have gone to sleep."

"Yeah? Like what?" Sora burbled out around a mouth full of chips, making Kairi giggle as she put a hand over his face to hide it.

He pursed his lips to one side, looking up at the ceiling, "Oh, nothing too exciting. Few odds and ends here and there though… wandering around a record store… a café with a palm reader… a street poet at one sidewalk corner, a belly dancer at another, some stargazing in a park…" Now he smirked over at me, "A carnival with a kiss at the top of the ferris wheel."

A mock gasp from Rayne, "Scandal! And you with a fiancé, young lady!"

I looked away, suddenly feeling guilty and flustered over something that hadn't even really happened. "...ferris wheels can be very enchanting."

And my streak of helping the lie along while not actually lying myself successfully continues!

"And then, and then?" Kairi insisted impatiently, just eating this whole bit of fiction right up.

He chuckled and shrugged, "Just mostly a lot of meandering the streets and talking. We were out all night and watched the sunrise together. Eventually, she had to go meet up with her sister so they could move on to another city for the next leg of their lil vay-kay. But I didn't let her leave without agreeing to meet with me again in a few months."

Kairi was slackjaw now as she whispered, "And did she?"

"Mm-hm!" he hummed happily. "And from there, we kept meeting up, our little get-togethers getting longer and more frequent over time."

"Then what?" She was relentless.

A wolfish curl tugged at one side of his mouth. "What else? I slowly seduced her until she fell helpless into my bed, hungry for the pleasure only I could give her," he waggled his eyebrows.

Of _course_ I'd chosen that exact second to be taking a sip of my drink. And of _course_ I promptly spluttered and choked on it. " _Excuse_ me?" I coughed, laughing incredulously as I elbowed him in the gut.

He gave a pained grunt, but grinned and snagged my hand before I could retract it, pressing a kiss to my knuckles. "I mean that in the most gentlemanly and respectful way possible, of course," he winked at me before looking back over at Kairi. "From there, I convinced her to run away from her family and ditch her two-bit, loser fiancé to be with me. And the rest, as they say, is history!"

" _Wow!_ " she sighed dreamily, slumping back and fanning herself. Then she blinked, "Wait…" A gasp. "Oh my _god!_ You swore off dating about a year ago, which was last summer! Was it cuz that's when you two met and it was love at first sight?!"

"Huh. The two certainly seem to line up perfectly, don't they?" he chirped. He'd rested my hand back down onto the table, his on top of mine, threading our fingers together.

Our waiter popped up again just then. "Your food will be just another moment. In the meantime, please allow us to entertain you with some music." He then turned, clapped his hands twice and called out, "Miguel!"

Out charged a boy in his early teens wearing a red hoodie and lugging a guitar that was white, etched in swirly patterns, and nearly as big as he was. He flashed us a smile huge enough to rival one of Sora's and without further preamble, started strumming away and singing. The kid was actually really good too!

Kairi clapped in delight and Rayne cooed over how adorable he was. Sora gaped in awe at the boy's obvious talent while Riku just grinned, digging into the chips. As I watched him perform, I couldn't help but feel Lea's eyes on me once more instead of on our little musician. I shifted in my seat, slipping my hand free of his and bringing it up to tuck some bangs behind my ear, hiding the growing warmth I felt in my cheeks behind my fingers.

At this rate, I didn't know how I was going to survive fake dating this guy for the rest of the evening, let alone for two more weeks.

* * *

"Where do you think you're going?"

Lea's hand closed around mine, stopping me in my tracks. I glanced over my shoulder at him, then back towards where Rayne and Riku were climbing into their car across the parking lot. "With them?"

"Ahhhnt," he made a buzzer noise, grinning. "Wrong! Would the contestant care to venture another guess?"

I gave him some side-eye, feeling one corner of my lips turn up. "...with you?"

"Bingo!" He started walking towards his car, gently tugging me along with him. "I was already so rudely denied my god-given right as the boyfriend to pick you up from your place. No way am I missing out on giving you a lift over to the movie theater. Same goes for driving you back home later tonight, so better make your peace with it now. It's happening."

I felt my smile twitch a fraction wider as I fell into step beside him. "I suppose being my chauffeur _is_ quite the honor and privilege. Wouldn't want to take that away from you."

"Glad that's settled then," he gave a chipper nod, unlocking the front passenger door of his vehicle and holding it open for me as I got in. As he then jogged over to the driver's side while I buckled in, there was a loud _meep meep_ of a car horn and I looked up just as a hot pink Jeep blurred past where we were parked - Kairi and Sora, it seemed, going on to the cinema ahead of us. I waved at them just as Lea had settled in himself and started the engine.

"So," I began once we were on the road, resting my temple against my knuckles with my elbow propped on the window sill, still grinning as I watched him out of the corner of my eye, "you took a road trip last summer?"

He gave a low hum of confirmation, reaching over to turn down the volume on the rock oldies station coming through the radio. "Decided to have one last big adventure before I really buckled down and started taking school seriously. Did a lil soul searching, that whole shtick."

"Ah." My gaze focused on the road ahead once more and I hesitated for a second, gnawing on my lower lip. "...that was a nice story you told. About how we met."

Lea chuckled, leaving one hand on the wheel while moving the other to lay atop the headrest of my seat. "Liked it, didja?"

"Oh definitely." Now I hid my growing smile behind my hand, trying to keep a straight face. "Though I have to admit, I think I was a bigger fan of the original movie adaptation."

I watched him visibly stiffen. "The…?"

Tapping a curled finger to my chin, I muttered, "What was the title again? _Before Sunrise_ , I believe?"

He snerked, then broke out into a full laugh. "Crap, ya caught me. Yeah, I may have borrowed from the plot there a tad."

"Just a bit," I shook my head at him. "You're lucky Sora and Kairi haven't seen the film."

"Kinda surprised you have," he turned the car down a road that would take us towards the mall. "Pretty sure it's older than you are."

"Nothing wrong with old movies," I shrugged before wrinkling my nose at him slightly with a tiny smile. "Kind of sappy though. Wouldn't have thought that'd be your kind of movie."

Looking my way, he smirked, "What can I say? I'm a sappy guy. And hey, at least I didn't steal _everything_ from that flick."

"True. The stuff before the train was all you."

"You helped," Lea pointed out as he pulled up to a stop sign. He then tapped his index against the steering wheel a couple times. "...outta curiosity, why'd you say Corona? Out of all the other places you must of visited on your trip, what made you pick that city?"

As the car accelerated once more, I tilted my head in thought. "Don't know really… I guess I just felt it would be a nice place to meet someone new in. That'd it make for a good story." I paused, watching some tail lights streak past us. "...the lantern festival really was beautiful. Have you ever seen it?"

Lea shook his head as he glanced up at the rearview before shifting lanes, "Nah. Had plans to on the road trip, but something else came up."

"A shame," I sighed wistfully. "You missed out."

"Wouldn't say that," he murmured, a warm flicker in his eyes. "'Sides, there's always next time."

"Suppose that's true," I nodded. "Nice touch, by the way, describing the dress I was wearing. I think I might even own one that's pretty close to it." Don't think I'd been wearing it in Corona though. But I couldn't really remember. It _had_ been over a year ago after all.

He laughed again, fingers combing his scalp before returning the hand to my seat, now on a spot next to my ear. "Well, I did help you pack your clothes from your old condo just a couple days ago. I probably saw it then."

"Good point." That made sense. It would have been too much of a coincidence if that'd actually been what I'd had on that day. But now… should I be worried that I _hadn't_ really been in that dress? What if someone found out the mismatch in the story? No… no, that was just me overthinking things again. Even if the tale ever reached the ears of the Duke's goon, it's not like they could go back in time to fact check. "Just one more thing now." My eyes narrowed at him, at odds with my grin. "Might want to edit the ending a bit."

"Which part?" he asked a touch too innocently, already turning us into the Dusk Town Center parking lot. "Running away to be with me? Hasn't that been the story all along?"

I rolled my eyes at him. "Try a little before that."

Wouldn't have thought it possible to both purse one's lips and smile at the same time, but Lea proved me wrong in that moment. "Hmm… oh! Well, figured wooing you over the course of months sounded more believable, but if you think it works better as weeks or even days, then-"

"No no. Little _after_ that."

"Well then, now you got me stumped cuz I know you just couldn't _possibly_ be talking about the absolute masterpiece that was the slow seducing, helpless bed falling, pleasure hungry part."

A snort. "Why yes, actually, I _could_ be talking about that and in fact am."

"But that's the best part!" he protested, turning to park in a space right next to a familiar Ford Focus. "It's the heart and soul, the very _essence_ of the story! The pièce de résistance, the crowning glory."

With a good natured scoff, I unfastened my seatbelt as the car shuddered into powering down. "Well decrown it because you're dropping that bit."

He lifted his chin slightly and gave a dignified sniff, "I am a storyteller, El. An _arteest_. You wouldn't ask Leonardo da Vinci to remove the smile from the Mona Lisa."

Well someone had a high opinion of himself. Which honestly came as zero surprise. I fixed him with a dull stare. "Drop it or your jacket gets a giant, sticky stain before the night is out." And with that, I opened my door.

Lea scrambled out of the car and rushed over to join me on my side just as I slammed the door shut behind me. He had the decency to only spend a couple seconds looking mildly miffed at having been denied the opportunity to open and hold the car door for me before his frown melted into a smile once more. "Jeez, blackmail? Never thought you'd stoop so low. But eh," he shrugged, "jacket's black, it'll be fine."

"You're failing to see the big picture here," I crossed my arms as I waited for Rayne and Riku to get out of their own vehicle. My guess was they were probably going for another round of Seven Minutes in Heaven in there. Smirking at Lea, I elaborated, "Because then I'll wash it."

"Egads," he mocked gasp, splaying a hand against his chest, "the horror."

My smirk curled wickedly. "In a washing machine."

As my roomies _finally_ vacated their car (faces flushed, I might add), Lea actually paled. "But it's dry clean only!"

"That's right," I said smugly and turned to walk away. "So nix that line or the jacket gets it."

"You fight dirty," he muttered as he caught up to me, slipping his hand into mine. However, he was grinning.

Huh. That wasn't what I'd been expecting. IE the face of a man who'd just suffered a crippling defeat by my hands.

I narrowed my eyes up at him. "You certainly seem pretty happy about the impending, inevitable demise of your jacket."

Now the grin was joined by a dimple as we walked. "Well, it's just that in order for you to make good on your threat, you have to take my jacket hostage. Meaning you're gonna hafta keep it after all." His head dipped down closer to mine as he swung our hands slightly. "I count that as a win for me."

...well crud.

Score one for Lea there.

Shrieks and giggles suddenly erupted behind us before Sora tore past us towards the mall's entrance with Kairi riding piggyback. Rayne laughed and tugged Riku into a stumble behind her so they could catch up while Lea and I continued to take our time, bringing up the rear.

We made our way through the food court and over to Cinema XIII. The manager with long, silver hair that I'd seen there last time was present again, off to one side where he was setting up a huge cardboard display for the latest _Star Wars_ movie. I watched him scowl and fiddle with the lifesize lightsaber cutouts as our group purchased tickets from a blonde chick with a weird hairdo that kind of resembled antennae. As we'd approached, I could have sworn I'd seen her boredly cleaning her fingernails with a small knife, but there was no sign of the blade by the time we'd reached her register. Perhaps my eyes had just been playing tricks on me.

Tickets for our whodunit comedy flick in hand, we then moved over to concessions which was being worked by that same teen with the emo haircut that I'd also spotted here a couple weeks ago. He hardly glanced up from the book he was reading as Riku and Rayne ordered snacks and drinks from him, Sora waiting in line behind them with Kairi still latched onto his back.

"Alright, whatcha want? My treat," Lea asked as he watched the flat screens hanging behind the counter scroll flashy ads for crisp, buttery popcorn and fizzing, bubbly soda.

I blinked. "What?" Then I frowned at him. "Oh no, not happening. You already paid for dinner despite my multiple protests. I'm not letting you buy me candy too."

We were only fake dating after all, and I wouldn't even want to make a _real_ boyfriend pay for everything!

"But it's my right as-"

I put my finger to his lips, silencing him as my eyelids drooped. "Enough with playing the boyfriend card already. You're having too much fun with that."

He puckered up and planted a tiny peck on my fingertip, sending a small jolt straight to my heart as I quickly jerked my hand back. He chuckled, "Just tell me what your fave candy is."

"Shouldn't you be able to guess?" I arched an eyebrow, stubbornly ignoring the way the tip of my finger still had a slight tingle. "Isn't that like your special gift or whatever?"

"Only with ice cream," he lightly corrected.

"Right," I crinkled my eyes at him. "How's that coming along again?"

His shoulders bobbed up and down. "It's a process."

"My turn!" Sora suddenly proclaimed loudly in front of us, dropping Kairi off his back and spinning around to get behind her.

His girlfriend gasped, "Sora no!"

"Sora _yes!_ " he cackled, jumping onto her back, arms hugging her shoulders tight and legs wrapping around her waist as her hands automatically shifted to grasp beneath his knees. To her credit, she managed to stand for three whole shaky seconds before collapsing beneath her boyfriend's weight into a tangled heap on the floor with him.

Ah, to be young.

Never mind the fact that I was pretty sure I was only like a year older than them.

With a soft snort through my nose, I glanced back at Lea. "Well, while you keep processing, I'm going to go find our seats."

I turned to go, but he pulled me back with the hold he still had on my hand. "C'mon, just lemme buy ya something small," he insisted as he hopped over the Sora/Kairi knot that was still trying to disentangle itself, forcing me to gingerly step over the two of them as well.

Shaking my head with a sigh, I said, "Why won't you just let it go?"

He beamed. "Cuz what schmoopsie-poo wants, schmoopsie-poo gets."

Oh no he didn't.

"Uh-uh, no. Veto. You are _not_ calling me that," I jabbed a finger into his chest.

There was a sly gleam to his eye. "Tell me what candy you want or I won't stop."

"You wouldn't dare."

"Wanna bet?" he flashed a toothy grin as we stepped up to the counter now that my roommates had stepped off to one side, already munching away at their newly purchased sweets. "You'll think you died and went to schmoopsie-poo heaven."

I gave a small huff and looked away. "Small price to pay. Not budging on this."

"Fine. You've forced my hand." He turned his head to the concession worker, slapping his palm down on the countertop and proudly declaring, "I'll have one of everything, my good man!"

" _What?!_ No, no, stop, he's joking," I hastily told the cashier, who froze mid-ringing the order up as he gave us a flat look with the one blue eye not hidden behind bangs. To Lea, I whispered, "What do you think you're doing?"

He shrugged, grin not faltering. "Figure ya gotta like at least one of 'em."

I stared at him. Then my shoulders slumped and I hung my head, grumbling, "...Junior Mints."

"You heard the lady," he chirped to the theatre employee. "And throw in a small popcorn and large Kupo-Kola too please!"

Once the junk food was acquired and paid for, we moved out of the way to join Riku and Rayne as Sora and Kairi bought their own goodies. While we were waiting, I opened up my candy and reached inside, retrieving a minty, chocolate-coated treat and popping it into my mouth.

"Can I have one?" Lea asked beside me.

I gave him a blank look. Then I glanced down at his hands, otherwise occupied with a full soda cup and a bag practically bursting with popcorn. Digging another Junior Mint out and holding it up between us, my gaze met his once more. "Say ahh."

Face brightening, his lips parted wide.

I inserted it into his nostril.

He blinked a couple times, then snorted which had the byproduct of dislodging the Junior Mint. "Okay, guess maybe I deserved that for being a lil pushy about getting you the candy."

"You most certainly did," I said matter-of-factly, eating another one. A pause while I slowly chewed before swallowing and mumbling, "...but thanks for doing it anyway."

"Heh. Don't mention it."

Kairi and Sora rejoined us then, arms piled high with sugary delights. Jeez, all that on top of the gigantic Mexican dinners they'd both devoured less than an hour ago? One had to wonder how the two of them managed to stay so skinny.

It didn't take long for us to locate our theater and when we entered, all the lights were dimmed for the trailers that had already started to play. We quietly found our seats close to the middle of the auditorium and we settled into them, Lea to the right of me and making up one end of our group while Rayne took up my other side, the rest of the gang to her right. It seemed the cinema had recently renovated with new, barely-used cushiony sofa seating, the kind that reclined.

As I pushed the button that popped out the chair's footrest and made myself more comfortable, I caught a glimpse of the others. Half way through a strand of red licorice, Rayne flinched when Riku was suddenly in her face and chomping down on the other end of the candy. Grinning, he took a few more bites, bringing their lips closer together until he could give her a smooch before pulling away, looking quite pleased with himself as she blushed and snerked, giving his shoulder a light shove. Kairi was tossing Milk Duds towards Sora's open, awaiting mouth and rewarding him with little kisses every time he successfully caught one.

Worrying my lower lip between my teeth, I glanced towards Lea out of the corner of my eye as he crunched away on some popcorn. Should we be acting all… _couply_ right now? Like the others were? I mean, it was a dark theater… did we really need to keep the act up in here too? Would anyone really notice? Then again, I'd noticed our friends being all sickeningly cute and I hadn't even been trying to, my eyes had just wandered. So maybe it wasn't such a stretch to consider the two of us were also possibly being observed, even in here.

My gaze flicked down to the armrest I shared with Lea. It was wide enough for both our arms to lay on it side by side, elbows touching. He wasn't holding my hand at the moment, instead just resting his about an inch away from mine. Which, now that I noticed, actually felt a bit weird, oddly enough. I guess I was starting to get used to it. But perhaps I should look at this as an opportunity for some more practice. An exercise in me being the one for once to initiate a display of affection. I seriously couldn't get away with him being the one to start it all the time, right? Surely, I had to act like I liked him too.

Which, to be fair, I kind of did.

Even if it was a secret.

But now I had to wonder how does one go about, ah… what was the term? ...making a move? I'd never had to do it with my ex. I'd never particularly felt the urge, nor had he ever really encouraged me to have more initiative in that area. He'd always been the one to take charge and that seemed to be the way he'd liked it. It seemed to be what was expected of our relationship, by him, by my family, by the world of upper society that I had lived in for so long. But I was no longer in that world. Things were different here. _I_ was different. And I needed to show that to my parents. And one way I could show that was by doing this.

So then… exactly _how_ do I do this?

...well I suppose I could start by moving my hand in the general direction of his. Seemed simple enough… right?

Gulping and holding my breath, I slowly, oh so _very_ slowly started reaching for his hand. As my fingers crept closer, the pounding in my ribcage grew louder and louder. A hairbreadth away from skin contact, I hesitated, what little courage I'd mustered already dwindling. But after a second, my face hardened. I needed to do this. For the sake of Operation Boyfriend But Shh Not Really. For the sake of a continued future free from my parents' control. With a newfound resolve burning in my chest, I pushed on.

My pinky barely brushed against his knuckle.

Nope! No way. Mm-mm, not happening!

I snatched my hand back, blushing furiously.

The blush of a failure. Pathetic.

However the touch, no matter how light and brief, hadn't gone unnoticed. Lea glanced my way, his head tipping slightly. Then he smiled, shifting his popcorn out of his lap over to his right while moving the soda from the cupholder between us to the one on his other side. Then he lifted the armrest separating us, folding it back between our chairs before slinging an arm around my shoulders and pulling me close so my head was pillowed by his chest.

I tensed for several seconds before relaxing against him, clearing my throat and, if possible, blushing even harder.

Well then.

Guess I no longer needed to worry about us not looking couply.

Even if I hadn't been the one to initiate.

...tomorrow. I would do a better job _tomorrow_.

As the last of the trailers ended and opening credits for the movie began filling the big screen, Lea ducked his head down next to mine. I could feel him grinning against my ear as he whispered, "This boyfriend model comes equipped with all the latest technology, including hilarious movie commentary. Would you like that feature enabled now?"

I leaned my head back a bit as I turned to look him in the eye. He cocked a playful eyebrow at me. Feeling one corner of my lips tug up, I whispered back, "Commentary on."

"You got it."

I was not disappointed.

* * *

"Is this really totally necessary?"

"Oh absolutely. Your uncle's spies could be anywhere, ever vigilant and watching at all times."

"Even here? In the parking lot for my own apartment?" I frowned dubiously.

I could feel him nodding against my hair. " _Especially_ here. I'll have you know I've seen at least three cars pass us already, each one more suspicious and shady than the last."

Date night had been a rousing success, if I did say so myself. We'd had a good time with friends, dinner was amazing and delicious, and the movie had been excellent. But as everyone knows, all good dates (even the fake ones) must come to an end. And at the end of every date, some sort of goodnight ritual is often at the very least customary, if not absolutely _essential_. Traditionally, this usually takes the form of the infamous goodnight kiss. However, since I'd already taken any sort of liplock completely and one hundred percent _off_ the table, Lea had instead opted for a hug.

One… extremely and uncomfortably _long_ hug.

...okay, that was a lie. It wasn't uncomfortable at all. In fact, was actually quite nice. Pleasant, even. Ten out of ten, would recommend.

We stood next to his car at the moment, my apartment building just a few yards away. After he'd parked and we'd both climbed out, he'd pulled my arms up to wrap around his neck, his hands once again finding their way under the leather jacket to encircle my waist, hugging me close as he'd rested his cheek atop my head. And so we had remained for quite some time now.

Kairi and Sora were no longer with us, having parted ways back at the mall, but I could see Rayne and Riku off to one side near their own vehicle, enthusiastically taking part in some cuddle time themselves while they waited for me. Which actually I really appreciated. Without their added presence here, I'd probably be getting a lot more awkward a lot more quickly about The Hug That Would Not End.

That said…

"We've been at this for at least five minutes now. Wouldn't you call that a bit, er.." I shifted my feet, resisting the urge to squirm, "...excessive?"

His hold on me didn't budge. "Gotta be convincing. 'Sides, we're obviously still in the honeymoon period of our relationship. You know, when the couple takes forever and a day telling each other goodbye a thousand times before actually leaving. Otherwise known as the No-You-Hang-Up-First phase."

My brow furrowed. "I thought that was only made-up for TV. Real people don't actually do that, do they?"

"Yup," I felt another nod. "Trust me, I'm an expert. I know these things."

I squinted off into space. "...haven't you only ever done one night stands?"

"Shush, I said trust me on this," he murmured.

And shush I did. I suppose I could look at this as a sort of… endurance training? Get me more used to his hugs so I'd be less awkward about them in public? Make them seem more natural? Yeah, okay. This might be good for me. Let's see how long I could keep this up.

...answer? Not long.

Tentatively trying to pull away, I began, "Alright, maybe we should-"

"One more minute," he insisted, squeezing me tighter and shifting his head down now to instead nuzzle against my neck. His nose was cold and his breath tickled against my skin, making my cheeks warm. Welp, so much for not squirming.

Huh. He really seemed to be taking this whole pretend boyfriend thing _very_ seriously. This was some extreme dedication to the role.

And there my insides went all over again, doing the whole warm, fuzzy, squishy thing. Alright, just breathe. Deep, calming breaths. Remember: Conceal, don't feel.

...maybe just focus on the concealing part. The not feeling part was already a lost cause.

"Ya know," Rayne's voice suddenly piped up nearby, causing me to jump, "maybe you two don't have to say goodnight just yet." Lea straightened up, loosening his grip on me just enough for us both to turn our heads to see she'd joined us. Gracing us with a sly smirk, she said, "I mean, if you want to _really_ drive this date home for any eyes that might be prying, Lea could always, ya know..." her eyebrows bounced as she leaned in closer to whisper conspiratorially, "stay the night."

" _What?!_ " My face erupted into blistering heat, the likes of which would've put the Sahara Desert to utter shame. "N... _No!_ Absolutely not! How could you possibly even-"

She laughed, her finger booping my nose. "Relax, you silly goose. Of course he'd only sleep on the living room sofa! S'not like your grunkle's minion would have x-ray vision into our home."

Oh.

_That's_ what she'd meant.

Well of _course_ that's what she'd meant. It's not like she'd ever really suggest…

Actually, no, this was _Rayne_ we were talking about here. I honestly wouldn't have put it past her.

She elbowed Lea in the arm, "So whaddya say, stud?"

He smiled, removing one hand from my waist to rub at the nape of his neck. "Well, I'd planned on getting some reading done for my classes tonight. But I do have my book bag in the backseat, so I suppose I could just as easily read here on your couch." His gaze shifted back down to mine, "That is of course, as long as you're okay with it!"

My face still recovering from its abrupt and devastating heatwave, I looked down and muttered, "Well, I… I suppose, ah… sure. Okay. I mean, just to keep up appearances… " My eyes flicked back up towards Rayne, "Thanks. I guess that's… actually a pretty good idea."

"Of course it is! I came up with it!" she beamed, planting her fists on her hips and puffing up her chest. Then she turned back to her husband, pressing her lips to his cheek as she linked her arm in his and led him over to the building entrance. Lea at last fully released me, but only long enough to unlock his car and pull out a messenger bag that looked heavy with textbooks. Kicking the door shut, he slung the strap of the bag over his head to hang across his chest before slipping an arm around my shoulders, grinning down at me as we followed the other two inside.

Once in our apartment, he removed the arm while Rayne pulled some spare pillows and bed sheets from the closet, tossing them onto the longest couch for Lea. Then grabbing a water bottle from the fridge, she unscrewed the cap and held her drink up high. "A toast! To Lea's sleepover! May it be the first of many!" she declared before tossing her head back to chug half the bottle.

Riku just snerked, shaking his head while Lea scratched his cheek with a weak chuckle and walked over to drop his bag on the sofa next to the blankets. I squeezed my eyes shut, pressing my fingers between my eyebrows with a soft sigh. Still, she had a point. I suppose it was only natural for my "boyfriend" to stay the night with some amount of frequency. Oh gosh, I hope this wouldn't be too much of an imposition on Lea.

As Rayne recapped the water bottle and put it down on the kitchen table, Riku stepped up to her, taking both her hands in his and pressing their foreheads together. "Hon, why don't we head to bed early tonight?" he asked, tone low and eyes hooded.

"Mmm," she breathed him in, smiling up at him through lowered lashes and nodding, "sounds good." As he pulled her towards their bedroom, Rayne glanced back at us. "Good night, you two! Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" she winked and waved before disappearing through the door, closing it behind her.

Silence followed. It felt strangely sudden and almost deafening.

I slowly turned to look at Lea.

He looked back, giving me a tiny smile.

That's when it struck me.

This was the first time in two full days I'd been alone with Lea. Like, _really_ alone. Not in public, not where we had to put on the boyfriend-girlfriend act. Even when it'd just been the two of us in his car earlier tonight, even then we'd still had kind of been in the relative safety of pretend date mode. Besides, driving around in a car was completely different from being alone with him here, now, in my apartment late at night. Now that there was no more reason for all the hand holding, forehead kisses, and other little touches, things felt… well I wouldn't exactly say _wrong_ per se, but more felt just kind of… off?

Panic was beginning to set in.

My mind was drawing a total blank.

I… didn't know how to be around him now. Not when we didn't have to fake a relationship anymore.

I'd forgotten how to act normal.

I think he could sense it too. The weirdness that had suddenly popped up out of nowhere. His eyebrows knit together, his gaze shifting about for a couple seconds. Then he opened his mouth to say something.

"Good night!" I loudly blurted out first.

Then I was in my bedroom so fast, you would have thought I'd spontaneously developed the power to teleport.

I slammed the door shut behind me, pressing my spine flat to it, eyes wide and taking shallow breaths through my nose. A few seconds passed where I just forced myself to inhale and exhale slowly a few times, trying to calm down. Then I winced, lightly banging the back of my head against the door.

Good job, Elsa. Way to make things mildly awkward. And for no real reason at all, you useless, hermitic dope!

With a small scowl, I shrugged out of the leather jacket and tossed it onto my bed. Then I unzipped my ankle boots, kicking them off and started pacing the length of my room back and forth, my hands twisting at my braid.

I couldn't just leave things like that. I had to talk to him. I had to toughen up and find an excuse to march my butt back out there. But what excuse?

My feet paused mid step as I glanced around my room for a minute before landing on one of my walls. Not just any wall. The one I shared with Riku's and Rayne's bedroom. Then I lightly tapped one fist into my palm. That's it! I quickly moved to my nightstand, opening the top drawer. Amongst its contents was a plastic baggie of earplugs. Digging out a pair and dropping the bag back into the drawer before closing it again, I then stepped over to my door. I took a second to take a deep breath and gather myself, standing up straighter and flicking my braid back behind me. Then with a firm, determined nod, I turned the knob and pulled, walking back out into the living room.

Lea was sitting on the couch that would be doubling for his bed tonight, arms splayed out wide to either side atop its backrest while he read the textbook that laid open in his lap. He'd pulled his hair out of its ponytail so his crimson locks were once again wild and free and he'd taken off his long-sleeved undershirt, now just wearing the tee.

Looking up at me, he all but leapt up to his feet. "El! Hi! I-" he grunted as the book he'd apparently forgotten was in his lap crashed down hard onto his foot.

I sucked in a tiny breath through my teeth with a frown, taking a step forward and reaching a hand out, "You okay?"

"Fine," he groaned. "I didn't need that toe anyway. It was only holding me back. Just dead weight." He laughed it off as he picked the textbook up off the floor, tossing it behind him onto the cushions before crossing his arms, "So, was there, ah… did you forget something?"

"Yes," I took a little step towards him, then frowned, glancing away. "Well, no…" I started to take a step back before catching myself. Wrong way, dork. "That is to say, sort of… er, I just...hm…" I thrust one fist forward, opening it palm facing up to reveal the earplugs, "Here!"

He stared down at them blankly. Then at me.

"Oh!" I gasped. "Right! Some sort of explanation would probably help." I gave a nervous _heh_. "So… uh… you know, those two," I gestured with my chin towards my roommates' bedroom door, "well, they just… the look they were giving each other before they went to bed, it's… well, it's a look I'm very familiar with from them. You know the look, the kind that should come with its own Marvin Gaye soundtrack. And those two… when they get going, they can really rattle the old headboard, if you know what I mean." A beat. Then I blanched. "Of _course_ you know what I mean! Right, moving on. So uh… they are _not_ quiet about it and they're _definitely_ not quick. And these walls? They're thin. I'm talking like tissue paper thin. And not even the good Kleenex Deluxe kind of tissue, more like the cruddy, two-bit kind you'd get at the dollar store that just disintegrates if you even so much as breathe on it." Great, now I was just plain babbling. "These walls may as well not even be there for all the sound they block. Or rather, _don't_ block. Then again, if they _weren't_ there, then we'd not only _hear_ but also _see-_ " Wrap it up, girl, wrap it up. "A-Anyway! So just… just take these. You'll thank me later, believe me."

His eyes crinkled and he nodded, plucking them from my hand. "Alright, I'll take your word for it. Thanks."

Good. Okay. Yes, this was going well.

...huh. Though… slight hitch in the plan…

What now? I hadn't exactly thought this far ahead.

Maybe this was enough. I could now just make a graceful exit, leaving things in a better place than where I had previously. Yeah, that sounded good.

I gave him a tight-lipped grin, inching backwards as I pointed towards my room. "Okay then, I think I'll just…" But as I turned, my eyes landed on Rayne's and Riku's door again and I froze and grimaced. "Ah, shoot," I hissed under my breath.

"Problem?" I heard Lea ask behind me.

I shook my head, "I meant to ask Rayne to unzip my dress before she went to bed since the zipper is _just_ where I can't reach and-" I blinked, then glanced over my shoulder at him sheepishly before fully turning to face him. "And why am I even telling you this? Forget I said anything. It's nothing, I'll figure it out."

"I can do it," he tossed the ear plugs onto the coffee table between us before stepping around it.

Waving my hands rapidly back and forth in front of me, I said, "No, it's fine. Really, you don't have to-"

"Don't be silly, just let me help you," he came to stop in front of me.

I tucked in my lower lip. Maybe I _was_ just being silly about this. I mean, what was the big deal? Really? "...o-okay," I sighed, turning my back to him once more and sweeping my braid forward over one shoulder, running my hands down its length a few times. At least my old nemesis, The Blush, had the common courtesy to wait until I was no longer looking at Lea before creeping its way up into my cheeks.

I could sense him taking another step closer to me, could hear his gentle breathing as I felt his fingers undo the clasp at the top of the zipper. One of his fingertips incidentally grazed my skin and I couldn't stop a tiny shiver. Then there was a pause. Like… a _long_ pause. I frowned straight ahead, uncertain. Nothing seemed to be happening. I turned my head slightly, stopping just short of actually being able to look back at him. "...everything okay?"

"Uh… yeah, the uh…" he cleared his throat, "...the stupid thing just got stuck for a sec there, but it's all good now." At last, the sound of the dress unzipping reached my ears. "There ya go, you're all set!"

My hand darted to clutch at the back of my dress, holding it together as I whipped around to face him. My blush? Only seemed to be growing in strength. I started backing away, "Th-thanks… for that. That was really… something. _Nice!_ That was nice. Of you. To do that… for me. I-" I crashed into my door frame and stumbled. "Oops. Heh. Who put _that_ there? Um… anyway…"

And on that eloquent and fully formed note, I dashed into my room, banging the door closed. Then I puffed out a breath, slumping down to sit on the floor as I pinched the bridge of my nose.

Great. Just dandy. I hadn't left things mildly awkward this time. Oh no, I'd only left them mega, ultra, _super_ awkward now. Progress! Superb. Just perfect.

That's it. It's decided. I'm not fit for human contact. I was just going to barricade myself in this room and never come out ever again. Ever. Period. The outside world would be better off without me anyhow. Good bye, people. Hello, sweet sweet solitude. I-

I heard a muffled buzz and my head snapped up. It'd come from Lea's jacket on my bed. I squinted at it for a second. Then it clicked. My phone! I half crawled, half scrabbled over to it, digging into the pocket and pulling it out, swiping the screen.

There was a new text from Lea.

_2nite was fun_

I blinked, looking over at my door. Then back down at my phone, pursing my lips to one side. My thumbs hovered over the keyboard for a second. Then slowly I began to type.

_I thought so too._

I waited as those three little dots hopped in a row.

_We shud totes do it again sometime_

A huff of amusement escaped through my nose, the tension starting to leave my body.

_I'd really like that._

Then I tipped my head to one side, grinning slightly as I tapped away further.

_I'm paying next time though._

The dots were dancing on my screen again.

_Aight, if u insist. But b warned, Im not a cheap date_

Now I actually laughed.

_I can live with that._

Perhaps I'd been a bit too hasty. Maybe there was no need to barricade myself in here. Not just yet anyway. I'd hold off for a bit.

At least long enough to see what tomorrow would bring.

* * *

_**Author's Note:** _ _Anyone else notice Lea's shirts seem to be getting tighter and tighter every new excuse he has to see Elsa out of his work clothes? I think he's subconsciously putting on a courtship display to present himself as a sexually viable mate xD Ahem, moving on… Fun Fact 1: Fuente Del Oro is a real, Coco-themed restaurant over in Disneyland Park in Paris! Google translate says the name means "Gold Fountain", oooOOooo pretty! I really hope Coco makes it into one of the future KH games eventually! Fun Fact 2: Elsa's dress this chapter is inspired by her purple dress from when she sings Into The Unknown in Frozen 2! Just picture it shorter and more cocktail-dressy. And I know in the movie, that purple dress is a nightgown, but shhh, we'll just forget that part. And the dress Lea described in his "how we met" story? Loosely based on Elsa's Show Yourself dress - again just picture it shorter, more practical and more sundressy xD Also if you haven't heard of it, Before Sunrise is a real movie, not to mention a real SAPPY movie. Kind of slow, but cute. I'd actually never heard of it until I started writing this chapter - saw a gif go by on tumblr of the lead couple from the movie doing something adorable that made me go "oh gosh, that's SO Lea and Elsa!" and had to watch it xD I'm kind of happy it came along when it did though, cuz it gave me inspiration for Lea's "how we met" story :)_

_Thank you so much for reading, especially to those of you who have left a kudos and shared with me your thoughts and feelings on this story so far! Remember, feedback is not only welcome, but highly encouraged and super appreciated!_


	18. Chapter 18

"Oh dear god, the rumors are actually true."

I blinked over at Frozone. "What rumors?" I asked as I bent forward over the countertop towards the little girl with short black hair tied up in adorable pigtails, handing her an ice cream cone that was almost as big as she was.

He facepalmed, dragging his hands down his face to give me a deadpan look between his fingers. "Are you _seriously_ dating the pizza guy?"

My shoulders tensed momentarily before I gave a nervous chuckle, holding my hand out to my tiny customer so I could receive her tip since she was too short to reach the jar. "Why do you ask?" I avoided his gaze, instead electing to sift through the small treasure pile now in my palm. Besides the assorted change, there was a smooth pebble, a shiny paperclip, and a crumpled up business card I assumed belonged to the kid's dad who she was scurrying back over to now. He was a big hairy guy standing off to one side in a garish blue suit with purple polka dots. The name on the card read James P Sully and he hailed from a company called Doors-R-Us, which I believed was a hardware store located somewhere else in the mall.

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Frozone wordlessly point across the way. As I dropped the munny into the jar and tossed the rest, I looked to the Pizza Planet and I had to quash the urge to facepalm myself. Lea was bouncing around behind the counter there, not so subtly alternating back and forth between blowing me kisses and holding his hands up over his head in the shape of a heart.

"Yup," I sighed, closing my eyes and pressing my fingertips between my eyebrows, "that idiot over there would be my boyfriend alright."

It'd been a few days now since the group date. There hadn't been any further outings, not of that magnitude at least, but Lea and I had been taking our lunches together if they lined up as well as making other small public appearances together wherever else we could to keep the act up. I was finally getting to the point where I was more used to all the hand holding and hugs so they no longer fazed me, not outwardly at least. The little flutters my heart would give were another matter, but at least those were easy enough to conceal and keep to myself. His kisses, on the other hand, continued to be a work in progress, often still causing my brain to experience a temporary hiccup in functionality. But I liked to think I was getting better about that too, just more slowly. I still hadn't made any progress in the initiating-PDA-myself department, but I just needed more time. I was working up to it, I swear! I'd get there. Maybe today even. Perhaps… Possibly… Hopefully? ...unlikely. Ugh.

Lea himself had been enthusiastically taking on the task of leaving no doubt in anyone's minds that we were now a couple. In fact, this was not the first time he'd been brazenly sending me air kisses and hearts across the food court. Just the first time Frozone had caught him doing it.

"But _why?_ " Frozone shook his head, looking genuinely confused. "I thought you two weren't even getting along. I mean, after the incident on your first day of work and all that weirdness in the weeks after…"

"Actually, we were dating before all that. Even before I started working here," I said quickly. Not that that helped clear things up for my coworker. Like… at _all_. But hey, I had a story to maintain. As his brow only wrinkled further at me, I winced. "It's… complicated."

He held his hands up, "You know what? I've decided I don't even care. As long as you don't let it interfere with your work, you do you, girl."

"Oh it won't! I promise! You can count on me," I reassured him, plastering on a smile. From my peripheral, I could see Lea was still at it with no sign of slowing down. If anything, he only seemed to be getting more spirited about it. To Frozone, I said with every ounce of dignity I could summon, "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a very important and totally work-related text to make on my phone right now that in no way, shape, or form has anything to do with…" I gestured a hand gingerly towards the Pizza Planet, " _that_ over there."

"...uh-huh," he said flatly, turning away to assist another customer.

Hastily fishing my phone out of my skirt pocket, I brought up my texts, tapping on a certain name before my thumbs were blurring across the screen.

_Quit it, you're making a fool of yourself._

I narrowed my eyes up at him as I hit send and he froze mid gesticulation, looking down at one pocket of his pants. Then I watched as he dug his own phone out, read my message and smirked before his fingers were on the move. There was a buzz in my hands and I looked down at the screen.

_1st of all, when hz that ever stopped me b4?_

Well he had me there.

_2nd of all, u thought all that was 4 u? Plz, all that luv was directed mr studmuffin ovr there_

I squinted one eye at the words before looking back up at him. He was now waggling his eyebrows as he pointed to my left and I realized he meant Frozone. The man in question was looking between us as he rang up an order, his eyelids drooping. "Do I even want to know?"

I snorted, biting back a grin. "No, I really don't think you do," I told him, tapping away at my keyboard again.

_Dork._

Lea was now typing something back one handed, using the other to wave off Xion as she tried to get his attention.

_U know it. What time u off?_

I checked the clock on my phone before replying.

_10 more minutes._

Xion was beginning to look frustrated over there as she more urgently tugged on his sleeve. Lea just smothered her face with his free hand, lightly shoving her away while he remained focused on his phone.

_Perfect me 2. Dont go NEwhere without me, we got plans ;)_

My head tipped to one side.

_We do?_

Xion huffed, stomping away to grab a giant slab of pizza dough and balling it up in her hands as she gave Lea the evil eye. He continued to remain blissfully unaware.

_Most defini9kf.u1kd4_

Apparently his fingers had slipped followed by accidentally hitting send as that ball of dough smacked him square in the jaw, courtesy of Xion's pitching arm. And _strong_ arm at that, for it was enough to knock him straight off his feet and send him disappearing below the counter. She razzed her tongue at him, dragging her left lower eyelid down with a finger. Then she paled and squeaked, bolting into the back room when a scowling Lea pulled himself back up, half his face dusted with flour now and one eye twitching as he stalked after her. I just laughed softly, turning my attention to a new customer that had just approached my register.

A few minutes later found me clocked out and standing in the food court, scrolling on my phone while I waited. I was still in my work attire, including of course a pair of glorious, blessed stockings (of the snowman-print variety) because never _ever_ again would be the day I'd go without. My hair was still pulled back into a ponytail, but I'd tucked away the Ice Palace cap into my bag.

"Ah, there ya are!" I felt Lea's arm slip around my shoulders and his hand cup the side of my head, bending it towards him so he could press a kiss into my hair. He grinned down at me, "How is my lil lekker stroopwafel this fine day?"

I blinked up at him. He was still in his work clothes too, sans apron and visor. Pocketing my phone, I echoed, "...lekker stroopwafel?"

"It's Dutch. It means you're my lil delicious waffle," he cooed and planted a swift peck to my cheek, which I squeezed one eye shut against.

Face warming, I gave him a blank look. "Do I even have to say it?"

He pouted, "Aw man, really? Overruled? Crap, I'd thought you'd like that one too. Guess it's back to the ol' drawing board." He started walking, the arm still hugging my shoulders pulling me along with him.

Shaking my head at him with a tiny smile, I asked, "So what are these plans we have?"

Holding an index finger up to his lips, Lea winked at me. "It's a surprise."

I quirked an eyebrow and frowned thoughtfully. "...is it the clocktower again?"

"Pft, like I'd do the same thing twice. What a lame-ass surprise that'd be. What kinda uninspired oaf do you take me for? Gotta keep things new! Fresh!" he chuckled as he moved us along, keeping our pace brisk. "And bonus, it's good for the masses to see the two of us out and about like this. Keeps us in the public eye and people talking about what a freaking adorable couple we make. Stop here."

"Wha-?" I was cut off as he suddenly swept me around, pointing me at the Bippity Boppity Boo formalwear shop. However, I got the feeling that he wasn't so much facing me towards it specifically as he was more so facing me _away_ from something else.

Standing in front of me now, he brushed a hand down over my sight. "Close your eyes please. No peeking now."

As soon as he removed his palm, my eyes snapped open again, "But what are you-"

"I said no peeking," he laughed, his hand gently sliding my eyes shut again. "You'll see soon enough, 'kay?"

"Fine," I puffed out a breath, crossing my arms and doing as I was told this time.

A shadow flickered over my eyelids - I think he was waving his hand in front of my face. Then I heard his footsteps walking past me, followed by him asking, "You got it?"

"Right here!" a friendly female voice I didn't recognize responded.

"Perfect! Thanks, you're an angel, this world isn't worthy of your pure divinity," he said back, to which she just gave a warm chuckle. Then I heard the tip-tap of Lea's shoes again, could feel him hovering just behind me now. When he spoke, his voice was right next to my ear, "Alright, you can open 'em now."

I did, discovering he'd looped his arm around to hold something up in front of my nose. A flower. Two of them actually, blooming from one stem, both white and delicate and with fuzzy sprigs of yellow sprouting out the centers.

"...winter honeysuckle?" I said quietly, carefully taking it from him.

His head still beside mine, I felt him nod, "Mm-hm! It's your favorite, right?"

I turned to look at him as he straightened up now. "How did you know?"

"Asked Raindrop," he grinned, shoving his hands into his pockets with a shrug and not yet taking a step back, remaining real close.

"Thank you," I murmured, bringing it up to my nose with a soft inhale. "I'm surprised it's blooming this time of year."

"That's Aerith for you. The Greenthumb Goddess," he tossed his head back towards the flower kiosk behind him and in particular at the woman running it. I recognized her from last time I'd walked past here, her big pink bow hard to forget. She just smiled at me, green eyes dancing as she waggled her fingers in a tiny wave.

I returned the smile and wave before setting my gaze on Lea once more. "Is this the surprise?"

"Are you kidding? Please, this is just the opening act. C'mon," he slipped his hand into mine and gently tugged me into a walk once more.

"But what's it for? Is there some sort of special occasion?" I frowned down at the plant, twirling it between my fingertips as I racked my brain, trying to come up with the answer myself but drawing a blank.

"Whaddya mean, what's it for?" he snorted as we passed an Olympus Gym with floor-to-ceiling windows, through which could be spotted a squat, bald, grumpy looking fellow that appeared to be training a chiseled, golden-haired Adonis who could be a strong contender for the Mr Universe title. Pulling me onto an escalator, Lea continued, "I just wanted to give ya something you'd like."

We slowly rose up to the second level, a Blitzball Sports shop and a Glass Slipper shoe store gliding by before disappearing beneath us on the floor below. A crease formed between my eyebrows. "But why?"

He blinked at me, then chuckled and ruffled his fingers through his hair. "Just cuz! What, does a boyfriend hafta have a reason to give his girlfriend lil gifts every now and again? Jeez, ya act like you never-" he froze, eyes widening. The back of his foot hit the top of the escalator, catching him off guard and he stumbled, but managed to remain upright before looking back at me horrified. "Wait. Please, _please_ don't tell me your royal dumbass of an ex never gave you any _flowers_."

I stepped off the moving stairs after him, looking away with a tiny huff. "Yes, of course he would. Big bouquets, in fact, full of a whole variety of blooms. They were actually quite lovely… but…" I raised the flowers up to my nose once more, hiding my small grimace behind them. "...well, there was just always a reason… an event or something. Just because etiquette would demand it. And they were never winter honeysuckles. I don't think he even knew they were my favorite. He never… asked…"

Lea pinched the bridge of his nose with a grumbling sigh. "This guy sounds more n' more like a total tool with each new thing I hear about him. Ugh, forget him," he brightened, linking our hands together once more, leading us onward.

We passed a magic shop bearing a glittery sign that read Sorcerer's Apprentice, inside which were two old dudes, each with beards more ridiculously long and grey than the last, plus a younger blonde gentleman with a goatee and several piercings, his hands shuffling what was most likely a trick deck of playing cards. Neighboring that establishment was the Blue Sitar, a musical instrument store with some guy snoozing behind the counter, his hair at war with itself, not quite sure whether it was a mohawk or a mullet.

My attention was drawn back to Lea as he chimed in once more, "Besides, we have way more important concerns to be thinking about." He turned his head to the right and his eyes lit up. "Like _puppies!_ "

"Pup-?" the word was swallowed in a gasp as he dragged me into a run towards a store dubbed 101 Spots. A _pet_ store, to be exact, as I quickly learned when we passed through its doors and my ears were greeted with a chaotic chorus of woofs, meows, and chirps. Both eyebrows shot up my forehead as I glanced around, "...is _this_ the surprise?"

"Nah, this is just a detour," he chuckled, releasing my hand to squat down and reach forward, fingers beckoning towards a dalmation near the cashier counter. The dog's ears perked up curiously for a second, then it gave an excited bark and barreled into his arms, nearly toppling Lea to the ground. It seemed the two were already old pals, if the way the canine's tail thumped against the carpet was any indication.

I tilted my head. "For puppies?"

"Well yeah! Always detour for puppies! Isn't that right, Mr Slobber-Drool-Face? Yes it is!" he squished the dalmation's face between his hands, using his baby-talk voice as it responded by enthusiastically giving him doggie-kisses.

Oh dear. Lea liked dogs.

"Is that the spot right there, buddy?" he asked as his four-legged friend flopped onto its back expectantly and Lea obliged, both hands giving vigorous belly scritches. "Oh yeah, that's _definitely_ the spot! Woojy-woojy-woo!"

Like… really, _really_ liked dogs.

My crush was soaring to dangerous new heights.

Clearing my throat, I tucked my flower into my bag, leaving the petals poking out the top so they didn't get smashed. Then I kneeled down beside him so I could reach down and scratch behind the dog's ear. It lapped at my palm and I grinned. "You looking to take this one home?"

"That's Pongo," a new voice spoke up. I looked up to see the woman with blonde hair done up into a bun smiling at me from behind the counter. Anita, or so her nametag boasted. "And he's not for sale. He and Perdita," she looked fondly down at a second dalmatian sleeping nearby, "belong to my husband and me. Perdita will be having puppies soon though, so you may want to check back in a few weeks."

"I like to stop in and give Pongo and all the other puppers here some wub whenever I can," Lea cooed, playfully wrastling the dog into a hug.

My eyes crinkled as I watched him play with the pooch for another minute, then I stood up once more, deciding to take a look around. I meandered slowly, reaching into the low pens as I passed by to give quick pats to dogs, cats, and bunnies, running my fingers lightly along the bars of bird cages as their occupants quizzically cocked their feathered heads at me before I moved on.

Finally I came to a stop in front of the puppy pen. And I didn't mean that in the same way Lea did, who seemed to call everything that barked and ran on all fours a puppy, regardless of the animal's true age. These were _actual_ puppies. There were a bunch of children on the other side of the pen that had gathered most of the puppies into a joyful frenzy over there. However, there was one that was staying back, ears at attention as it sat on its haunches and stoically watched the others frolic. Put quite simply, it was a pure ball of fluff, white and poofy. It had to be more fur than dog.

"Hey there little guy," I murmured, getting its attention as I bent down over the enclosure. It backed up a step, lowering into a crouch and giving the hand I offered it a tiny growl, which was more cute than threatening. "It's alright," I soothed patiently, still holding out my hand. The snarling subsided and after a hushed pause, it tentatively crept forward to snuffle at my hand before giving it a timid lick. "Ah, I see," I laughed, sticking both hands in now to pick the puppy up and hold it in front of my face, "not such a tough guy after all, huh? No, you're just a big ol' softie deep down."

Its stubby tail began to wag and it replied with a small yip.

"You don't say?" I smiled back, cradling it in my arms now and taking one of its paws in my hand. "Look at those feet. You're going to be a big fellah, aren't you? Do you have a name?" Another yip. I scanned the puppy corral, but didn't see any signs listing names. Ruffling the cushy fur of its tummy, I told it, "Well you look like a Marshmallow to me."

"Quick," Lea suddenly appeared at my shoulder, whispering into my ear, "you distract everyone with your feminine wiles and I'll stuff the pup down my shirt to smuggle him out of here."

I snerked, not taking my eyes off the poof as I tapped a finger to its wet nose. "Ah, so _this_ is the one you're going to get. Good choice."

"Me? Nah," he shook his head as his hand went to pet it and it repaid him by treating his fingers like a chew toy. He didn't seem to mind. "Saïx would murder me execution style if I ever brought a dog home."

I turned to look up at him now, arching an eyebrow. "But I thought you said Saïx loved dogs."

"Nope. Other way around, _they_ love _him_. He just suffers their presence. Does lead to some pretty funny interactions though whenever he crosses paths with one. But no, I meant you. How 'bout it, wanna give this lil tyke a home?"

"Oh no," I sighed sadly, shifting the puppy in my arms and it took the opportunity to flick my nose with its pink tongue as I did so. "Unfortunately, pets aren't allowed in my apartment complex. But maybe when I get my own place."

His head rocked back slightly, "Huh? Already have plans to move out? But you just got there."

"Situation's temporary. My room's a future baby nursery, so I need to find a place before junior arrives in a few months." I nuzzled the critter's snoot. "Hopefully I'll find somewhere nice that allows dogs and I can get a little cutie like this guy to just snuggle with in bed all day."

"Mmm," he hummed. I could feel his hand trailing down the length of my ponytail, running it through his fingers and letting it slowly slip free strand by strand as he mumbled, "Sounds like that would be nice to come home to." Then he tensed beside me, snatching his hand back to instead scratch a spot behind his ear, "Er… that is… I mean you make… coming home to a _dog_ sound nice. Heh."

I made a noncommittal noise in my throat, stroking a curled finger under the puppy's chin.

"...I'm going to have to take the lil mutt away from you, aren't I?" I heard Lea ask.

"Chances are good, yes."

"Alright, fuzzball, time to go back to your pen before the pretty lady commits grand theft doggo," he scooped the pooch from my arms. It growled at him and he just snorted as he plopped it down into the enclosure, "Oh yeah, so scary. Got me shaking in my stylish-yet-sensible Chuck Taylors."

Would-Be-Marshmallow ran up to the plastic fence, whimpering at me and giving me the full force of its sad puppy-dog stare. I tucked in my bottom lip, my hands already reaching for it again, "Maybe I should just-"

"Nope, let's go," he snagged my hand and started leading me towards the exit. "Don't make eye contact, that's how they get ya. One look and bam! You're powerless to resist their evil, doggie mind games."

I let him guide me back out of the store, offering little resistance beyond a tiny pout. It wasn't until he led us onto another escalator that I snapped out of my sulking. I furrowed my brow, looking down, "Wait, we're descending."

One step below me, he turned to face me with a smirk. This was one of the rare occasions he was at my eye level without having to stoop. "Yes, that more or less tends to happen on down escalators."

"But why?" I frowned.

His head tipped slightly to the left. "...I'm guessing you're looking for an answer more sophisticated than, 'to get to the first floor.'"

I rolled my eyes, "Yes, I mean why-" I stopped, realization dawning on me and my eyelids drooped. "...did we seriously only go to the second floor so you could pet the dogs?"

"Puppies," he corrected then shrugged, "and yes. It was on the way."

"No, no… if it requires taking an up escalator to get there, then a down escalator to get back on track, that is by definition _out_ of the way."

He lifted his chin with a sniff, "Puppies are _never_ out of the way."

I shook my head at him, "You have a problem."

"Says the puppy snatcher."

"I did _not-_ "

"Oh-ho, but you _wanted_ to. Could see it in your eyes, El," he leaned forward, pointing to his own gaze. "Lucky I was there to save you from going down a dark path from which there's no turning back."

I gave a huff through my nose and deadpanned, "My hero."

"That's right, babycakes. And don't heroes always get a kiss from their lady fairs in honor of their heroic deeds?" His hands shifted to cover mine on the rubber handrails and he leaned in further still, his nose brushing mine, his eyes hooded.

Cue the conga drum beat that was the hammering of my heart.

Gosh, he really did just so love using this pretend boyfriend act to mess with my head, didn't he?

Well, nope. Nu uh. Not today, you stupid blush! Turn around and march yourself back to wherever you came from because this face ain't buying what you're selling.

I rocked back on my heels a bit, regaining a little space between us as I turned my head away. "Well, if you head back to 101 Spots, I'm sure _Perdita_ would love to slobber you with those kisses."

Snerking, he stepped off the escalator as we reached the bottom, muttering, "Was worth a shot." As I followed him onto the ground floor, he grabbed hold of my shoulders and guided me a few steps further before bringing us to a stop. "Here we are!" he proclaimed, flourishing his hands out before us, "Ta-da!"

My nose scrunched up slightly. "...The Toy Box?" I read the colorful sign hanging over the archway before me that opened up into (you guessed it) a children's toy store. It seemed business was currently slow, for inside all I could see was one employee by himself, wearing a kiddie cowboy hat too small for his head and galloping around on a stick horse to amuse himself.

"Huh?" Lea followed my gaze then tsked under his breath. "No, not that. _That_." He pivoted me slightly so I was instead looking at the next business over. Above its entrance flashed big, neon letters spelling out Hot Wheels. They were punctuated by a blinking image of a pair of old fashioned four-wheeled skates leaving a trail of cartoon fire in their wake.

"A roller rink?" I asked slowly and uncertainly.

"Yup! C'mon!" And with that, he weaved our fingers together once more and pulled me through the doors.

The place was huge inside, with eighties synth-pop blasting out from the overhead speakers. The ambient lighting was dim, but you'd hardly notice what with all the glowing neon rainbow tubes twisting and stretching along the walls, the iridescent laser light show dancing to and fro, and the spotlights darting about all over the large arena that was taking up a majority of the space. It was jam-packed with roller skaters laughing and having a good time.

Lea led me over to a long counter immediately to the right of where we'd entered. The cashier across from us was a chick with short, choppy black hair that had a few streaks of violet in it. She said nothing, just crossed her arms and stared at us, chewing her bubblegum and looking unimpressed.

"Hey Go Go!" Lea chirped at her, holding up a pair of fingers. "Two sets of skates please!"

Bored stare not letting up, she merely blew a bubble and remained silent. For a second, I almost thought she hadn't heard him over the blare of the music. But then the gum burst and she gave a flat, "This her?" Her eyes gave me a quick once over before narrowing on Lea. "She's too good for you, Red."

"Don't I know it!" he laughed before shifting over to mime cupping his hands over my ears, "But don't let _her_ hear you say that, otherwise she might finally come to her senses and dump my sorry ass!"

Her eyelids drooped and she blew another bubble. Tough crowd, it seemed. With another pop, she turned her back to us, grabbing a few things off the shelf behind her before dropping them down on the countertop in front of us. "You know where the lockers are," was all she said as I looked down at the padlock and two pairs of roller skates - the smaller set powder blue while the others a blinding red.

"Sure do! Thanks, Go Go," Lea beamed, gathering everything up and tucking it under one arm.

I cocked my head at her, "But I didn't even tell you my shoe size, how-"

Once again, I was being dragged away by Lea's hand on mine. I tripped but caught myself, glancing over at him as we walked towards some benches. He grinned, "Don't worry, they'll fit. Like me, she's got a gift," he tapped an index finger to his temple. "Except instead of ice cream, it's skate size."

Okay… strange talent.

But couldn't argue with results. They fit like a glove. As I tightened and tied my rentals, I glanced over at Lea out of the corner of my eye while he did the same with his. Roller-skating, huh? Not what I'd expected. Then again, I'd had no idea what to expect. But this could be fun. Plus, maybe I could look at this as another opportunity to initiate PDA. Couples roller-skating was an optimal time to do that, right? Right! I just needed to look for my opening and, I don't know… just grab his hand, something like that.

Alright. Mission Make A Move was in motion.

Maybe.

We'll see.

It wasn't long before both Lea and I had finished lacing up and stowed our shoes away into a locker along with the rest of our belongings we wouldn't need. I followed him to one of the few openings in the barriers surrounding the rink. "Ever roller-skated before?" he asked, stepping out into the oval arena just as the song _You Spin Me Round_ started playing over the sound system.

"No," I shook my head, padding across the carpet and stopping at the edge of the ring. I watched as his wheels glided him into a half-spin with ease, coming to a stop when he faced me. Clearly, this wasn't _his_ first rodeo. I shrugged, "But I used to ice skate, so shouldn't be a problem."

"Shouldn't be," he hummed a chuckle, eyes crinkling. Then he rolled back a few steps, making room for me and gesturing for me to proceed, "Have at it then."

I took a step onto the glossy surface, stumbled and nearly faceplanted.

I say _nearly_ because Lea was there in the blink of an eye to catch my arms and steady me, giving a loud snort through his nose. "Dunno how much your ice skating background is gonna help ya here. Blades and wheels? Not the same thing. Ice and hardwood? Not-"

"-the same thing. Got it," I grumbled, my legs wobbling as I struggled to keep my balance, my fingers squeezing his forearms hard.

He smiled down at me before cautiously releasing one of my arms so he could about-face, shifting to my side. There, he took my other hand and tucked it into the crook of his elbow before his feet pushed off, coasting at the speed of molasses. Me, being on teeny-tiny tires, had little choice but to be towed along with him as he said, "Ice and roller-skating are two sides of the same coin, but still totally different animals. Your muscle memory is probably gonna work against ya for a bit. Your body will expect things to work one way and react accordingly only to be surprised when the physics of it all is totally outta whack."

"Thanks for the lecture, professor. I think I'll figure it out." I tested moving one foot forward, slipped and desperately tightened my grip on him to stay upright. "...eventually," I amended, both my arms hugging his bicep close now.

Did this count as making a move?

I don't think it did. It was more like advancing a move already in progress and not even one that I'd started myself in the first place.

Maybe I should concentrate less on making a move and more on just not falling flat on my rear.

Consider the mission scrapped.

"So… you were an ice skater?" he asked conversationally.

I nodded, trying out another step while still using him for support. This one went marginally better. "I took lessons for a few years as a kid. My parents' idea. Supposedly, it improves posture, balance, flexibility and coordination, all in the pursuit of excellence," I recited dryly. "But even though it was just another tool they used to mold me into being their perfect little girl, I still found it fun despite all that. I actually enjoyed it quite a lot. I was sad when they ended my lessons once they'd decided I'd outgrown it."

"Ah," he continued creeping us along at a lazy pace while I grew more bold and determined in my attempts to figure out how to make the cursed roller-skates bend to my will and obey me. "That explains why all your movements are so graceful."

"Graceful?" my head snapped up to look at him before I gave a derisive snort. "No, not at all, I'm a total klutz."

"Sometimes," he agreed, pulling to a stop and curving around to stand in front of me now as he hunched forward to look me in the eye, one corner of his lips twitching up. "But that's cute too."

Bam.

Shot through the heart.

Which, coincidentally, were the lyrics that'd just sung out over the speakers as the music switched to _You Give Love A Bad Name_.

As my brain scrambled to come up with a response, _any_ response to that, a huge smirk suddenly flashed across his face and he declared, "And spin!"

"Wha-?"

Taking both my hands in his, he leaned back and started swinging us both around into a twirl together. Or perhaps _death spiral_ would be the more appropriate term for it. I squeaked as we gained speed, our surroundings blurring more and more together, my feet scrambling to keep the wheels from slipping out from underneath me.

"Don't worry, I won't let you fall," Lea called, still grinning like a madman.

And oddly enough, I took comfort in those simple words. I shyly smiled back and my muscles began to relax. Once I stopped fighting the spin, it went a lot more smoothly. I laughed as my ponytail whipped about from the centripetal force.

He abruptly slowed us to a stop and I staggered at the sudden change, but he caught me around the waist with one arm, pulling me up against him. "I got you," he reassured, panting a bit from energy expended on the twirl. I just breathed a small chuckle and his gaze softened as it flicked from my eyes over to my ponytail, which had swung itself forward over my shoulder when we'd stopped spinning. He brought his free hand up to twist a platinum tendril around one finger. "...why don't you ever wear your hair down?"

"My…?" I blinked at the random question that'd seemingly popped up out of the blue. My gaze averted and shifted about. "Well, I… I guess I never really thought about it. Just to keep it out of my face, I suppose."

Lea watched his fingers as they continued to play with the strands. "Your hair is just really pretty. It looks… I mean, I can... _imagine_ how nice it must look down."

That blush came a-knocking again. And this time my face, being the utter fool that it was, let it in.

I suddenly shot out one arm to the side, pointing a finger and blurting out, "Go over there."

He spluttered and snerked. "Seriously? Just cuz I'm a fan of your hair, you're _banishing_ me?"

"Th-that's not- no, I just-" I stammered, looking down with a frown. "I want to try and see if I can skate on my own for a bit."

"Oh." He tipped his head. "You sure you're ready for that?"

"Won't know until I try. Now," I flicked my hand dismissively at him, "shoo."

Releasing me, he started skating backwards. "Fine. I'll be right here though if ya need me," he said, stopping just a few feet in front of me.

Now shakily standing under my own power, I moved one foot forward to attempt a glide. I teetered and I saw him tense, ready to spring into action and rescue me. However I steadied myself, shooting him a tiny warning glare. He backed off, raising his hands in surrender. I sighed then told him, "Turn around."

His head reeled back, "What?!"

"Turn _around_ ," I insisted, rolling slowly forward now, feet lurching and arms darting stiffly about to maintain my balance. He began drifting backwards, maintaining the same space between us. "I can't do this with you looking at me. I feel self conscious."

He beamed. "But I like looking at you! It gives me the warm fuzzies inside," he announced loudly into the sudden hush as the last song ended so all the other skaters around us could no doubt hear.

How I didn't pancake onto the hardwood right then and there will forever remain a mystery to me.

This guy, I swear. The lengths he was willing to go to to sell the whole boyfriend act would never cease to amaze me. Feeling that familiar warmth creep back up into my cheeks as _Take On Me_ started to play, I snapped, "Just turn around!"

"Alright already, jeez," he sniggered, rotating away from me to face forward now while still maintaining the same snail speed.

"No peeking," I told him sternly.

Lea gave an exasperated laugh, "I'm _not!_ I'm not peeking!"

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously on his back as I wobbled my way into another step. Then I had a thought. Perhaps _now_ would be the opportune moment to give the whole PDA thing another shot. I was already starting to get the hang of roller-skating. If I could catch up to him, I could go for the hand or… or hug the arm or something! Just for the sake of maintaining appearances, of course. You know, just... keeping up _my_ half of this whole pretend girlfriend-boyfriend deal. My motives were _strictly_ professional and had _nothing_ to do with a certain little, teensy-weensy crush that would never, ever even see the light of day.

Yeah, okay, let's do this.

Mission Make A Move was back on.

Alright, step one: reaching him.

...that might take some doing.

In the meantime, we'll instead work on step zero: small talk.

"Do you come here a lot?" I asked, unsteadily picking up speed and trying to close the gap. "You seem pretty good at it."

"The kiddos and I goof around here from time to time," he scissored his skates, leisurely weaving his feet in and out and in again. "Been doing it for a while now, so I've picked up a few things. Not gonna be going pro anytime soon, but I get by."

I attempted to mimic his actions with my own skates and failed miserably, floundering a bit before stabilizing. At least the fumble had brought me a few inches closer. "I'm sure you've brought a girl or two here before too."

He shook his head with a chuckle, "Nah. Never really made any stops along the way between the bar and my apartment when taking a lady friend home. But… I always did think this might be a fun place to take a gal on a date."

Realization struck.

"Wait!" my foot slipped, I staggered and flailed before catching myself. "Is this a date?!"

"Heh, sorta?" his hand went to the nape at the neck, tugging at the hairs there. "More of a mini-date? Or just… chilling together cuz we enjoy the pleasure of each other's dazzling company so much!"

"This _is_ a date!" I repeated, stomping after him furiously now. Which, let me tell you, was not effective in skates at _all_. But through sheer force of will alone, I managed to get a bit closer. "I was supposed to pay for the next date!"

"And you have!"

I _swear_ I could hear the smirk in his voice.

"I most certainly have _not!_ "

Almost there now.

"Have too! It was free. Me and Go Go are tight, like this," he held up one hand, crossing his index with his middle finger, "so I gots the hookups!"

A growling huff escaped me. "Cheater. This doesn't count, I'm paying for the next one."

"This _so_ counts! Next one's on me, you can cover the one after that."

I scoffed. "And give you time to figure out how to con the system again? I don't think so, you-"

I suddenly tripped over the toe stop of my left skate and toppled forward, crashing hard into Lea's back, my arms instinctively latching around his waist. He grunted in surprise and swayed, but managed to keep us both upright and standing. As I hung onto him as if my life depended on it, fingers clutching at the front of his shirt, face buried in his back and inhaling his cinnamon scent mixed with the hint of pizza that still clung to his clothes from having gotten off work not too long ago, it slowly sunk in…

Mission accomplished.

Move made.

...albeit accidentally.

But still!

One small step for Elsa, one giant leap for introvert-kind everywhere.

Maybe the next one I'd actually do on purpose.

Cheeks burning now, I awkwardly cleared my throat as I relaxed my grip on the fabric of his Pizza Planet polo and started to withdraw my arms, mumbling, "Sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"Don't," Lea said quickly, covering my hands with his and squeezing, forcing them to stay put right where they were. I could feel him pushing us off into a slow glide once more. "Don't… worry about it. It's fine, I don't mind. Take all the time you need to regain your footing."

"...thank you," I muffled into his shoulder blade. Then I hesitated, gnawing on my bottom lip. "...you know… for a guy who's never been an actual boyfriend before, you're actually really good at this."

I could feel his laugh rumble through his whole chest. "Thanks," he said, gently pulling on my arm to bring me around to his side so he could look down at me as he slung an arm over my shoulders, all while making sure my arms remained firmly secured around his midsection. There was a faint redness to his face, probably from the exertion of all this roller-skating. I could only hope he'd assume that was my excuse too. "I guess I was just waiting for the right person to come waltzing into my life." Then he winked and grinned, "That person being your uncle of course."

Eyes widening, I stumbled again, grasping Lea more tightly. "My… you mean the _Duke?_ "

"Hell yeah, the Duke! Talk about silver fox! I mean, hot damn, mamma may I!" he fanned himself with his free hand.

Snorting, I shook my head. "I guess the heart wants what the heart wants."

He chuckled, rubbing his hand up and down my arm. "Seriously though, if it weren't for his Royal High-And-Snootiness marching into the food court and unleashing all holy hell, you and I wouldn't be here doing this right now. I wouldn't be unlocking and realizing my full boyfriend potential and you," he poked the tip of my nose, "wouldn't be experiencing all the joys that come with being the lucky recipient of such attention. He's the one that started it all."

"I suppose that's true," I nodded as I tried to mirror the way his feet moved. How did he make it look so easy?

"And I like to think we have fun with it too," he smiled down at me.

I returned it. "We do."

"Good. On that note," he reached down, unfastening my arms from his waist as he announced, "let's make like a pair of professional roller rinkers and dance!" Taking my hand in his, he whipped me into a couple tight spins.

"Roller rinkers?" I laughed softly when I came to a shaky stop, one hand going to his chest to steady myself. "Don't think that's a real term."

"Hey now, who's the one who actually knows how to skate here?" he smirked, twirling me out wide now. "Trust me, I know the lingo."

I rolled my eyes as he pulled me back in. "My mistake. Forgive me for questioning you, oh supreme fountain of roller-skating knowledge."

"Damn skippy! Now for the flashy finish," his hand went to the small of my back and he bent me backwards into a low dip, waggling his eyebrows at me as he did so.

And that's when it all went wrong.

For you see, I don't think nature ever intended for one human being to dip another while both had tiny wheels attached to their feet.

" _Motherfu-_ " that's all Lea got out before our skates shot out from beneath us and we both went crashing painfully to the floor, him on top of me.

I heard him groan, then, "Shit! El, you okay?!" He hastily braced himself up onto his hands, hovering over me and eyes full of concern.

"Fine," I winced, my fingers going to rub the sore spot at the back of my head. "Let's just… leave the dancing to the professional roller rinkers from now on, okay?"

Relieved, he gave a low breathy laugh and pushed himself back to sit on his knees. "That sounds like quitter talk and I won't stand for it."

I sat up, propping my palms against the cold hardwood behind me. "Good, better not to stand period. Less chance of falling that way."

"C'mon, you. Back on the horse," he grinned, drawing a knee up to his chest to get one skate under him followed by the other before standing and reaching his hands down towards me.

With a sigh, I took them and let him pull me back up to my feet. "Alright, but no more dipping."

One arm encircling my shoulders once more, his eyes crinkled. "I make no such promises."

That earned him an elbow to the ribcage.

* * *

_**Author's Note:** _ _Here, have the latest batch of lil references I've baked up fresh out of the oven xP_ _Thank you so much for reading, especially to those of you who have left a kudos and shared with me your thoughts and feelings on this story so far! Remember, feedback is not only welcome, but highly encouraged and super appreciated!_


	19. Chapter 19

Neverland, as I was currently discovering, was a huge indoor playground at the Dusk Town Center mall. A place where children never had to grow up, or so its big overhead sign boasted. Its vast range of diversions for the little ones included such attractions as a jungle gym in the shape of a large comical skull, a huge green plastic alligator that had a slide built into its long back, and monkey bars supported at either end by large, spooky prop trees. Off in one corner, there were even synthetic, cute yet culturally problematic teepees for the tiny tots to crawl around and hide in. But its crowning jewel seemed to be the kiddie train that ran along the tracks circling the entire play area. Each of its carts were actually little pirate ships that could fit one child in it, _maybe_ two if they were really little.

Since the playground was in the middle of a wide open mall walkway, many stores surrounded it, such as an antique shop by the name of Cave of Wonders. Beyond the rusty brass lamps in its window and past an old, tacky purple carpet draping off a shelf, a friendly young woman with long black hair tied back into a two-sectioned ponytail and wearing a turquoise crop top could be seen running the counter.

Next door to that was Game-A-Saurus Rex, a video game store sporting a green t-rex mascot as part of its logo. An absolute giant of an employee with messy brown hair was currently setting up a display pyramid but his meaty, clumsy hands accidentally knocked it over, wrecking it. I got the feeling this wasn't the first time from the look of being one hundred percent done he was receiving from his silver haired coworker with mismatched eyes.

Neighboring them, I was a bit surprised to discover there was even an Esmerelda's Secrets here as well, a… ahem, _lingerie_ store, to use a more PG term. I found its location so near to the play area to be a bit of a questionable mall layout choice.

I sighed, paper bag lunch crinkling in my grip as I glanced around.

Where was he?

"Are you sure this is where he told you he wanted to meet up?" Kristoff asked beside me, his eyes scanning about as well. Thankfully, he'd forgiven me by now for the minor phone-hurling fiasco and we were back on speaking terms again.

"Positive," I fished my mobile out of my pocket with my free hand, rereading Lea's text asking me to head to Neverland once my lunch break had started.

Since I'd never heard of it before, I'd asked Kristoff (him being the closest person at hand since he'd been working the Ice Palace registers with me) if he'd known what it was. I figured he could at least point me in the right direction, which would be faster than looking at a mall directory. Instead, since he was getting off shift the same time I was going on lunch, he'd offered to walk me there, saying it was on his way anyway.

But now here we were and a certain redhead was nowhere to be seen.

"Bah, I'm sure he'll turn up any second now," Kristoff shrugged off with a laugh. I said nothing, just continued to frown down at my phone before raising my eyes to take another look around. Shoving one of his hands into his pocket while he used the other to ruffle the hair at the back of his head, Kristoff said, "So… your sister…"

"Anna? What about her?" I muttered distractedly, gaze still jumping from face to unfamiliar face. Come on, Lea was a friggin' mountain with hair like a beacon that could light a path home for even the most wayward of lost ships. The guy should have been sticking out like a sore thumb.

He pursed his lips to one side, slightly widened eyes darting about now. "She's… well, she's really… _neat_." I blinked, slowly looking over at him now. He stiffened, then gave a weak chuckle, "Did I say neat? Not neat, I meant, ah… pretty!" His face blanched. "Pretty… pretty, pretty _swell_ , that is! Yeah, a real bangarang," insert his wince here, "gal that, uh... that's really, er…"

Annnnnd now he was blushing. What was with him, anyway? It was so unlike him to be getting all tongue-tied and-

Oh.

Oh dear. I knew what this was.

_Someone_ had a _crush_.

Ugh, why did I have to be the one to break his heart by telling him my sister was already in a relationship?

"...anyway," his voice cracked and he coughed, beating a fist to his chest before trying again. "Anyway, what I'm trying to say, or… rather _ask_ is... would you know if, ah… is... is she seeing any-" his idly wandering gaze landed on something past me and he froze, words dying on his tongue. Then his eyelids drooped. "...I think I found your boyfriend."

My brow furrowed at the face he was making before I turned on my heel, following his gaze.

I heard them before I saw them. Cheerful whoops and hollers echoing from the plastic tunnel over the railroad tracks, heralding the emerging train of pirate ships. Then there they were: Lea and Roxas, taking up a full boat each as the locomotive chugged along, their hands thrown up high over their heads as they cackled in almost maniac glee. The two kids in the cart behind them - a carrot top boy in a green cap embroidered with a red feather logo and a little blonde girl wearing toy fairy wings - were giving them funny looks.

I spluttered, my fingers shooting up to smother and hide the grin I was fighting. This was behavior I did _not_ want to encourage.

There he was, ladies and gentlemen. My bad-boy boyfriend in all his glory.

I hope the Duke's spy wasn't here to witness this.

Scratch that, I'd rather _no one_ were here to witness this.

"Those goddamn morons have been at this for over ten minutes now," I heard a grumble from a familiar voice close by. I looked to my right to discover Xion standing there, watching them with a scowl and one eye twitching. As the train drew near, she called out flatly, "Oh yeah, looking real classy there, guys!"

"We're posh as fuck!" Lea replied smugly with a pinky raised, heedless of what nearby young and impressionable ears might overhear. Then his eyes drifted past her to notice me for the first time. His already beaming face did the impossible and brightened even further. As his little pirate ship choo-chooed its way past us, he cried out, "There you are, El! 'Bout time! We're celebrating!"

"El? Who's El? No, you must have me mistaken for someone else. I don't know you," I shook my head, taking a step back. "Quick, let's get out of here," I hissed to Kristoff, snatching his arm with one hand and using the other to hide my face as I tried to make a hasty retreat.

"Oh-ho, no ya don't! You're not getting away _that_ easily!" I heard Lea laugh behind me. I hazarded a quick glance over my shoulder to see him struggling to get out of the cart - he _was_ wedged in there pretty good, seeing as how those boats were never meant to withstand a man of his considerable stature. However, he finally managed to wiggle himself free and jump off the moving kiddie train, stumbling over the railing surrounding it and leaving poor Roxas behind looking quite distraught at having been abandoned.

Then he was charging towards me and I spun around to face him, defensively throwing my hands up in front of me. "Got ya!" he declared triumphantly, snagging me by the waist, my arms instinctively going to hug his neck as he lifted me up and spun me around a couple times.

What was even happening?

"Right," Kristoff said. Don't ask me how, but I could _distinctly_ hear the eyeroll in his voice. "I think I'm gonna go now."

He walked off and I frowned after him as Lea put me back down, though his arms still kept me trapped against him. Then I shrugged. Kristoff's wee crush would have to be a problem for another day. Looking up at Lea, I shook my head with a barely suppressed smile, "What has you so giddy?"

"I got my test grade back today," he chirped, nuzzling his nose to mine for all the crowded mall to see.

"Your test?" I cocked my head at him. Then it clicked. "Oh, the one I helped you study for? You passed?"

"Passed nothing, I aced that sucker! Made it my bitch and it was all thanks to you!" And with that, he was hoisting me up for another twirl.

"Dude, what the hell?!" a shout suddenly rang out across the mall before Roxas came bursting out of the press of shoppers, sneakers screeching to a halt in front of us as he glared at Lea. "Can't believe you just _ditched_ me like that! I looked like a total dumbass riding that thing all by myself!"

"Oh sure," Xion deadpanned at his side, "cuz you looked like a regular Einstein before as a grown-ass man riding around in the widdle choo-choo train with _another_ grown-ass man."

Roxas crossed his arms and stuck his nose up in the air with a harrumph. "You're just jelly cuz we didn't invite you."

She scoffed, "You didn't invite me cuz I turned you guys down the last ten times you tried to drag me onto that dumb thing because I didn't want to look _stupid_."

"Your _face_ looks stupid!"

Xion lunged at him, but Lea had already put me down and was snagging them both by the scruff of their shirt collars, dragging them apart from each other. He sighed, "Kiddos, please, would you start acting like the grown-ups that you are?"

Said the adult man who'd just been joyriding in the kiddie train.

Seriously, how were these three even college students? They all acted like a bunch of preschoolers.

"Ha, fat chance with this dope," Xion snerked, reaching across to flick Roxas in the forehead.

"Why you-" he broke free of Lea's grasp. Xion gasped and managed to squirm loose herself, bolting and squealing with laughter as she disappeared into the crowd, Roxas hot on her heels.

"Oi, kids these days. I give up," Lea grumbled, shaking his head and tossing his hands up in defeat. "Now where were we?" Looking back at me, his eyes lit up. "Ah yes," he bent forward, bringing us nose to nose with a tiny smirk, "my reward."

Both eyebrows shot up my forehead and I staggered back a bit. "Your… reward?"

"Mm-hm!" he nodded, grin twitching wider. "For kicking that test's ass, I get a reward! It's standard girlfriend protocol."

I blinked, "...it is?"

"Didn't ya read your dating handbook?"

...there's a _handbook?!_

Wait. No. That was just a joke.

And wishful thinking on my part.

Because I mean, seriously, how much easier would my life be right now if I could consult a handbook?

That aside, I had to get back to the matter at hand: some kind of reward for Lea. Which was my duty as the girlfriend. Apparently. What did that even entail? What was it supposed to be? What was I supposed to do? My face paled and my hands clenched. This was too much responsibility to be thrust onto me all of a sudden! What, was I supposed to buy him something? Or… maybe this was this another PDA situation? I mean, I hadn't made a move in that department since the roller rink a couple days ago. If tripping and crashing into him even counted. Which, personally, I was still chalking up as one for the win column. Had to take my small victories wherever I could! That said… perhaps it was high time I gave it another go?

Yes. Okay. I was going to do this. This… I was going to do.

My gaze hardened and my nostrils flared slightly as I started taking deep, sharp breaths, psyching myself up.

I got this. No more putting it off. Be strong! Be brave! Carpe diem! Seize the day! Grab the bull by the horns! Strike while the iron's hot!

Lea snerked, straightening up, "Woah, El, your face! Relax! I'm kidding! Just teasing ya like I always-"

YOLO!

I dropped my lunch bag, grabbed his head in both hands, yanked him down and kissed him.

...on the nose.

Way to bury the lead there, I know.

But hey, it still counted! Let me have this!

I held it for the space of a few thundering heartbeats before I pulled back, releasing his face and doing my best to ignore the slight jitters I felt from the adrenaline surge.

Lea was stock-still and just giving me a blank, wide-eyed stare.

Huh… not the reaction I was expecting.

A few long seconds ticked by where nothing happened. My eyes darted about nervously. Then I slowly, awkwardly picked my lunch sack back up off the floor. And still nothing from him. Nada. Not one peep.

Should… should I say something?

_That's_ when he jolted upright (startling me half to death, I might add) and brought both his hands up to cup his nose, spinning around so his back was to me now.

Okay, really, _really_ not the reaction I was expecting. At _all_. Just what-

Then it hit me.

I hadn't asked his _permission_ first! And after he'd been so careful with me all this time too! Apparently I couldn't even return the favor! Fudge, this was like the Kissident all over again. Except worse! At least then, it'd been an accident. This time I'd done it on purpose! This was _premeditated!_ Not to mention this now made me a repeat offender! A… a serial kisser! Would my reign of smooching terror never cease?

Anxiety eating up at me now like a swarm of angry ants in the pit of my stomach, I bit down on my bottom lip and took a hesitant step forward. "Lea?" I asked, my voice small. "Did I do something wrong or-"

"Nope! No, it was good. Really, really good," he said quickly, voice tight and muffled still by his hands. Then I heard him puff out a slow breath, watched his arms fall to his sides and he whipped around towards me once more, huge smile splitting his face in two. "So good, in fact, it's high-five worthy. Whaddya say, wanna high-five? Let's high-five." He held his palm up in front of me. I wordlessly stared back at him, arching an eyebrow. He was being weird, even for him. And why was he talking so fast? He hastily dropped his hand, "Not high-five. Forget that. That's stupid. We should, uh… we should go. Wanna go? Let's go."

As he snagged my free hand in his and tugged me into a walk beside him, I tipped my head to the left and uncertainly gave him some side-eye. "...where are we going?"

Seemingly already recovered, his grip shifted to instead hook our pinkies together as he shot me a wink. "Where all couples sneak off to whenever they have a lil free time. Somewhere dark, secret and secluded so," here he raised his voice for all to hear over the mall hub-bub, "we can make out!"

My feet faltered and I stumbled, barely catching myself as my face spontaneously broke out into its best impersonation of a tomato. "M-make out?!"

He snorted, bending close to my ear and whispering, "Calm down, only said it for show. We'll just find some place to lay low until your lunch is over and let the gossip mill churn." Straightening back up to his full height, he beamed, "Sound good, my knuddelbärchen?" A crease formed between my eyebrows and he chuckled. "Go on, ask. Ya know ya want to."

I sighed, "And knuddelbärchen is…?"

"German for cuddle bear," he pinched my cheek.

"No."

"You can sleep on it, _then_ get back to me."

I rolled my eyes but held my tongue as I continued to let him lead the way to wherever it was we were going. It wasn't long before we entered a part of the mall I was more familiar with and he turned us down the deserted wing that was under construction. Ah, back to the clocktower then, was it? So be it.

Once the locked door was picked and we were inside, I started to head for the stairs but he stopped me with a hand on my elbow. At my questioning look, he said, "Dunno where the kiddos disappeared off to. They may have beat us to the punch and could be up there already, which'll totally bust our whole fake make-out sesh. Better to just hide out down here instead."

"Alright," I nodded as he released my arm.

And there it was again. That strangeness that seemed to hang in the air whenever we were alone together now. Whenever we didn't have to put on the act of being in a relationship. I was now so used to him lacing our fingers together every chance he got that when he didn't this time, instead opting to stuff his hands into his pockets with a grin and a soft "heh," my own hand almost felt… slighted? Bereft? Sad? Could hands even feel sad? Well, whatever the hand equivalent of sadness was, it felt that.

There were a couple large, dusty crates stored in here with us at the bottom of the clocktower. I stepped over to one, gingerly dusting off the surface before setting my paper bag down on top of it. Then I cleared my throat and looked to him with a small, timid smile. "This whole rent-a-boyfriend thing is really becoming a full time job now, isn't it? Sorry… to be wasting your time like this. I'm sure there are better ways you'd be preferring to spend it rather than stuck here with me."

Lea blinked at me, then huffed out a breath of a laugh. "Hey, you already forgetting whose idea it was for us to steal away on our own like this? Ya got nothing to be sorry for. I like this, it's fun! 'Sides," he moved to stand in front of me, leaning one shoulder against the wooden support beam there that was holding up the decrepit old staircase above us, "it's not a waste. I'm a big fan of my El time. Love having any excuse to hang out with ya and have you all to myself."

Cue heart spasm.

Dropping my gaze and tugging my Ice Palace cap down to hide my warming cheeks, I zeroed in on opening my lunch bag with far more acute focus than was absolutely necessary. Let's see what Mama Rayne had packed for me today, inquiring minds were simply _dying_ to know. To him, I just mumbled, "To each their own, I guess."

"So…" he reached a hand out, index finger flicking the bill of my hat back up so he could meet my eyes when he smirked, "...you kissed me."

All color drained from my face.

Crud. Was hoping this wouldn't come up.

"I'm sorry!" came bursting out of me.

His head rocked back before he snorted and sighed, "You apologize too much, ya know that? Fine, I'll bite. What're you sorry for _now?_ "

"I should've asked if that was okay before I did it!" I took off my cap, wringing it between my hands. "I overstepped, I shouldn't have just assumed! I hope I didn't freak you out or make things awkward or uncomfortable or, or _weird_ or-"

"Woah, woah, slow down," he chuckled, holding up his hands. "Ya got nothing to worry about. I was totally, one hundred and ten percent cool with it!"

My eyebrows knit together. "Really?" I frowned, absently setting the hat down on the box. "But you seemed so… I thought I might've upset you or-"

"Upset? Nah, not even a lil bit! _Surprised,_ maybe, cuz I never in a million years expected you to, ah… heh…" he paused, pursing his lips to the right as he dragged his hand along the nape of his neck. Then he closed his eyes in a grin, "How 'bout this? This, right here, right now, is me giving you the okay to do whatever you want to me from now on in order to maintain your girlfriend cover. Anything goes, got it?"

Eyes growing round, I stammered, "A-anything?"

He couldn't be serious! Anything was a _lot_. Anything was… well, _anything_.

"Yup, anything! Don't hold back. Just feel free to go to town on me."

This was too much power. Do not want. Take it back.

"I, uh…" What does one even _say_ to that? "O-okay… thanks?" Was this something I should be thanking him for? Seemed like a weird thing to thank him for. This whole _discussion_ just seemed weird, period. Concentrating on my packed lunch once more, I pulled out a ziplock of baby carrots. "...I don't think I'll be, er… _going to town_ on you any time soon though, but the offer is, ah…" Is what? "...appreciated?" Sure, let's go with that.

"Shame," Lea tsked under his breath, then snerked as his hand shot up to block the carrot I threw at him. "Kidding, kidding! Still, just know that door's always open, in case ya ever wanna put on a bit of a show for any audience we might have. I won't be bothered. Promise."

"I'll keep that in mind," I muttered, taking out a second carrot to nibble on as I averted my gaze. Was ready to talk about something else now.

"Still, fact of the matter remains," one corner of his lips curled up, "you kissed me."

Gah! Would he stop _saying_ that already!

A soft harrumph. "Only on the nose."

"One _lucky_ nose!" He hunched forward slightly, pointing at it, "I'll have you know I'm never gonna wash this puppy ever again."

I snorted, setting the ziplock down on the box and reaching back into the paper sack to see what other goodies it contained. "Be serious."

"I am! Wouldn't wanna lose the divine blessing you've bestowed upon it on this fine day!"

Biting back a smile now as I continued to root around in the bag, I shook my head. "Does this mean that you also haven't washed your lips since the-" I abruptly froze, eyes widening and mouth clamping shut.

There was a pause, then I could see out of my peripheral the slow cheshire grin spreading across Lea's face. "Go on, since the…?"

Since the Kissident, was what I'd been about to say.

I knew it.

_He_ knew it.

But did I have the guts to actually power through and finish that sentence?

Frantic fingers grabbing the first thing they could out of the lunch sack, I shoved it into his face with a weak laugh, "Chocolate pudding cup?"

Nope. I sure as heck most certainly did _not_.

Elsa, Queen of the Skillful and Seamless Subject Change.

"Oo!" he chirped in delight, taking it. Well, he was easily distracted. That, or he was just being nice and letting me off the hook. Probably the latter. "A nose kiss _and_ pudding? Big day!"

With a soft, relieved sigh through my nostrils, I fished out a plastic spoon to hand him as well. "Don't forget about the train ride too. Big day indeed… do you and Roxas do that often?"

Having already torn into it and taken a spoonful into his mouth, he swallowed. "Not really. Only for special occasions. Wouldn't wanna cheapen the experience."

My eyes crinkled. "Because it's already so sophisticated and highbrow to begin with," I said, forgoing the PB and J sandwich at the bottom of the bag for now and instead opting to pull out some string cheese. Removing the wrapper, I asked, "Passing an exam counts as a special occasion?"

"Only the hard as balls ones that can make or break my overall grade for the course," he shrugged, scooping out some more pudding and offering it to me, to which I just shook my head.

"Ah," I rested one hip against the crate, peeling off a thin strip of mozzarella and slipping it into my mouth. "How many years do you have left on your degree anyway?"

"Couple more. Though I hear if I'm a model student, they'll let me graduate early for good behavior."

"Don't think that's how it works," I hummed a low laugh. "Then after that… what was it again? ...a nice little ice cream shanty by the seashore, I believe?"

Lea grinned around his spoon, "Something like that."

Pulling off another strand, I hesitated with a slight frown. "...but why ice cream?" At his cocked head and raised eyebrows, I worried my lower lip between my teeth. How to phrase this? "...it's just been something I've been wondering about actually. What with your mother dropping you off at an ice cream shop before she, ah... split when you were so little, I would have thought it would just be a… a source of bad memories, is all."

He snorted, looking down at his spoon as he swirled it around in the chocolate goop. "S'not the ice cream's fault my deadbeat mom abandoned Saïx and me when we were kids. She's taken a lot from me, I won't let her take that too. 'Sides, also got a lotta good memories tied to ice cream. Fun times with friends and whatnot. It's nice that something so simple can bring a smile to people's faces and I just like the idea of being a part of that. Sounds silly, I know, but what can I say?" He thrust the now heavily pudding-laden utensil up high in the air, "I have a calling! And answer it I must!"

I brought a curled finger to my lips, hiding the tiny smile. "Some calling. You still haven't even guessed which one's my favorite yet."

"Told ya, it's a process," he stuck the spoon into his mouth, holding it there as he squinted thoughtfully. "Speaking of… lessee, what other flavors haven't come up yet… ah! Three Wishes?" he asked, pointing the plastic implement at me. Then he scoffed, "Yeah right. _Way_ too gimmicky with all that blue cotton candy. It's trying too hard. Classy and effortless is more your speed."

My smile ticked wider as my fingers plucked further at the string cheese. "Are we still even talking about ice cream anymore?"

"Course! Trust me, I've got this down to a science. I know my shit."

"If you say so," I gave a soft snort. "You really have me at the edge of my seat here. I can't wait to see which one you finally land on."

"Me neither. I'm just as much on this journey as you are," he chuckled, tossing the now empty cup onto the crate alongside the paper bag. Propping one shoulder against the post again, he looked down and scratched his cheek. "...hey, so, ya free in a couple nights? Saïx's been wanting to meet my new lady friend and suggested we have you over for dinner."

Finishing the last of my own snack, I quirked an eyebrow at him. "He knows you have a lady friend?"

"Wasn't hard for him to guess since I've been out all night a lot recently, what with your couch being my new home away from home."

"Oh." My fingers reached for a tendril of my ponytail to twist as I mulled for a second. "Yeah, I suppose… I don't have any closing shifts coming up for a while, so I'm free for the next few nights. Just let me know when."

"Sweet! We can see this as a test run of sorts. Practice for the big weekend with your folks and-" he suddenly fell silent, head jerking to his right. I blinked, confused. Then I heard it too. This soft rattling coming from the doorknob - the telltale sounds of a lock being picked. "Crap! The kiddos! Hide," Lea hissed, grabbing my shoulders and shoving us both beneath the staircase, my back hitting the wall behind me.

The door burst open. I didn't so much see it since the stairs were now between me and it, blocking my line of sight, but I heard it along with the echoing laughter of two very familiar voices. As it slammed shut again and the staircase began to quake from feet running up it hard, I heard Xion ask, "Think we'll find them up there?"

"Probably." That was Roxas. I turned my head to the left, watching through the slats between the steps as his sneakers blurred past. "Giving each other tonsillectomies, no doubt."

My face heated as I realized they were talking about Lea and me.

But good news! Lea's plan was working. People thought we were off somewhere, er... shall we say, _necking_.

Or at the very least, _those_ two thought so anyway.

I heard a snigger from Xion as her boots rushed past the gap not too far behind him. "Perfect. Let's scare them shitless."

They both cackled and tried to shush each other at the same time as I heard their thudding footsteps fade further and further away above us. Once I was certain they were gone, I puffed out the breath I'd been holding.

That's when I became aware of several things. Very, _very_ aware.

Aware of the familiar feeling of Lea's eyes on me. Aware of how close we were. Of his grip still on my shoulders. Of my hands on his chest. Of the gentle thud of his heartbeat beneath my fingertips. Of his warm, spicy boy scent. Of his body pressed to mine, pinning me to the wall still from his rush just seconds ago to get us both out of sight. Of the fact that I could _still_ sense his gaze on me.

Oh gosh, was there something on my face?

I slowly turned my head to look up at him and meet his eyes. He had that look in them again that I'd seen once or twice before. The one that made my insides twist and flip-flop.

Emergency! This is not a drill, people! Fetch the conceal-don't-feel armor and suit up, stat! I repeat, this is _not_ a drill!

The slightest hint of a grin tugged at the corner of his lips and when he spoke, his voice was low. Barely above a whisper. "You know what would… _really_ sell this make-out sesh? ...if right along here..." he ran the tip of his index finger along the side of my neck down to where it met my shoulder, so lightly I hardly felt it, his eyes following its trail the whole time, "...there was a hickey. Maybe two or three. Ya know… just for appearances, of course..."

I just stared at him for a second. Then two. Then I smiled, "That's a great idea!"

He looked taken aback, his gaze widening. "Wait, really?!"

"Of course! Did you bring any makeup with you?" I asked. He just gave me a blank look. "You know, like your guyliner. Do you have anything else? Something that could make the fake marks look convincing?"

He blinked a couple times. "Makeup… right… that's what I meant… heh..." his eyes darted to the left. "But shoot, you know what? Didn't bring any with me." A slow smirk stretching across his face now, he bent down to press his forehead to mine as his eyes hooded, "But hey... we could also always make 'em the old fashioned way."

Once more I stared, expression neutral.

Processing… processing…

Then my eyelids drooped. "...you're messing with me again, aren't you?"

Lea stiffened. Then he relaxed, straightening back up and bracing an elbow against the wall above my head, resting his brow to his forearm as his whole body shook with a soft chuckle. "Yup! Yup, you uh… you caught me alright! Totes was."

Conceal-don't-feel armor saves the day once again! If it hadn't been for that, my heart might have exploded in that situation.

Man, was I getting good at deflecting these little jokes of his now or what?

He shifted over and away from me, giving us both some breathing room now. "Do you think maybe we should go somewhere else?" I asked, my gaze drifting up the clocktower as I returned to the crate, repacking my lunch back into its bag and picking up my hat. Thank goodness the "kiddos" hadn't noticed this stuff before dashing upstairs. "Just so Xion and Roxas don't catch us down here?"

"Sure, good call. I gotta few other secret spots 'round this place we can hole up in until your lunch is over." He went to the door, pushing it open a crack so he could peek out.

"Okay," I nodded while waiting for him to make sure the coast was clear. Then I grinned. "You know, you almost had me going back there with the hickies."

"If only," he muttered so softly, I wasn't sure I'd heard correctly.

"Hm?"

His shoulders tensed, then he breathed a feeble laugh as he glanced back at me, "If only… I'd, er... _remembered_ to bring some makeup! Ah well, maybe next time, huh? C'mon, let's go." His hand reached for mine.

I took it and suddenly my hand didn't feel so sad anymore as I let him lead me back out into the mall.

* * *

I couldn't sleep.

I rolled over onto my left side, pulling the sheets up to my chin and curling in on myself a bit. Then over to my right. A few seconds ticked by. Then I rested my back to the mattress and frowned up at my bedroom ceiling, at the long thin patch of frail moonlight slashing across it from between the curtains of my window. Sighing, I tossed over onto my side again and tried putting my head beneath the pillow this time, hoping the added darkness and some light hypoxia would do the trick to knock me out.

No such luck.

With another heavy sigh, I sat up, letting the pillow fall back down behind me. I brought a hand up towards one of my earplugs, stopping just short of reaching it as I frowned over at the wall I shared with my roommates. Then I tentatively pulled it out, already preemptively grimacing as the noises I might hear.

Instead my ears were greeted with a very different sound and from a different direction no less. Coming through my closed door from the living room was a faint, hollow murmur of voices. I squinted towards it, tipping my head to one side. Was that… the TV? Tugging the other earplug out, I set both down onto my nightstand as I listened for another minute, my fingers fiddling with my braid. Then folding my sheets away from me, I got out of bed, smoothed my nightgown and crept over to the door to open it.

Lea was sitting on his couch out here, the glow of the television screen the only thing illuminating him in the otherwise dark living room. Since him couch-surfing here was becoming a bit of a habit now, he'd started bringing an overnight bag with him for things like toiletries and the pyjamas he was currently wearing - a black tank top and PJ pants patterned with tiny fireballs sporting evil smiley faces. In fact I think it may have been the same design on the frisbees I'd seen back at his apartment. Some kind of brand logo, perhaps?

His elbows were braced up on the backrest behind him, temple propped against one fist as he watched the screen. He glanced over at me as I stepped out, quirking an eyebrow and lifting his head off his knuckles. "El?"

I gave my braid a tiny tug before dropping my hands and clasping them together, forcing them to be still as I gave him a small smile. "You're up late."

He grinned back. "Yeah. Never really could pass out to total silence," he nodded towards where his own earplugs laid discarded on the coffee table. Then he wrinkled his nose, shooting a sideways glance towards Rayne's and Riku's room. "But shit, you weren't kidding 'bout those two going at it like jackrabbits in there. Had to do something to tune 'em out, so turned on the ol' tube and guess what I found?"

I moved to stand beside him for a better view of the TV. The scene was currently zoomed in on a couple riding in the back row seat of a trolley. The girl was distracted, lost in whatever she was talking about while the guy was reaching his hand over to tuck her hair back, only to awkwardly snatch it away when she suddenly turned to look at him, completely oblivious to the gesture as she continued to enthusiastically ramble on. My smile grew as I took a seat next to Lea. "It's _Before Dawn_. Imagine that."

"I know. What timing, right?" he hummed a small laugh. We were both quiet for a few seconds, simply watching the movie. Then he nudged my knee with his, "And what brings ya out here in the middle of the night? Other than the pleasure of my charming company, of course."

That earned him a soft snort as I slouched more comfortably into the sofa and picked up one of the small throw pillows, hugging it in my arms. "Trouble sleeping."

"Oh?" he looked over at me, relaxing his hand along the top of the cushions behind my head. "Something on your mind?"

I gnawed on my bottom lip, not taking my eyes off the television even though I wasn't really paying attention to it anymore. "...it's just coming up so fast."

Brow furrowing, he squinted up at the ceiling in thought for a second. "You mean our visit to the parental units?"

My insides churned as I gave a small nod. "It's only a week away now. It doesn't feel like enough time. I don't know if I'll be able to go through with this… if we… if _I_ will be prepared in time… if I'll be able to face them."

"Hey, don't worry 'bout it," he flashed a warm grin. "You and me? We got this. I like to think we've become quite the awesome dynamic duo. Gotten pretty good at this whole girlfriend-boyfriend thing. Got the entire mall buying into our story and if we can fool them, we can fool anyone."

"But it's not _anyone_ ," I muttered, squeezing the pillow more tightly to me. "It's _Father_. And _Mother_. And..." my face scrunched up, "...the Duke too? ...for some reason? Anyway, tricking Father for a grand total of five minutes was one thing, but now? Now it's my whole family. For a whole _weekend_. What if they find out?" Oh dear, I could already feel a panic attack coming on just thinking about it. I turned my head, frowning at him. "...what if I can't do this?"

The hand behind me lifted, hesitantly hovering and shifting about for a second before settling on a quick, reassuring pat to my head. "Just say the word and you can pull the plug on this whole op anytime ya want. Don't force yourself to do anything you don't wanna do. But just know you're a lot stronger than you think. And chances are? It won't be as bad as you fear." He poked himself in the side of the head, just above his left ear, "Our brains like to mess with us, tell us things will be a lot worse than they actually turn out to be. And 'sides, you won't be doing this alone. I'll be right there with you the whole weekend. Your sister too. We got your back. You got a support system. Consider us your safety net. We'll be there to pick up the slack and catch you if you fall."

I bowed my head, nose perched on top of the edge of the pillow now. "...thank you. That helps," I muffled into it, my tiny smile hidden. And I meant it. I could already feel some of my unease starting to slip away. Straightening back up and tossing my head back onto the couch, I inhaled deeply before loudly exhaling. "I should just stop thinking about it. Stressing out over it now does me no good. I need to be talking about something else."

"Something else, huh?" he mumbled, eyes returning to the movie as he scratched the tip of his nose. "...so I had a thought. Remember the other day when you said you'd be looking for a new place in a few months when lil Baby Hewley arrived?" His knee started jiggling up and down while out of the corner of my eye, I could see his fingers fidgeting with the seam of the backrest cushions. "Well, what if… and ya know, this would only be if you weren't able to find somewhere on your own and if, like… you had no place else to go and were up shit's creek and whatnot, but… what if you moved in with…" he glanced back my way, "...me?"

I blinked at him. "...you?"

His face brightened. "Yeah, whaddya think? We got plenty of space for ya! It'll be a total blast! And hey, we could even get ya a puppy."

Fighting a grin, I quirked an eyebrow. "A puppy? But what about Saïx?"

"Psh," he brushed off, one hand batting the air. "Saïx can fight me. You want a dog? You're getting a dog, end of story."

I snerked and looked down. Lips pursing to one side, I did a mental replay of what I could remember of when Lea had given me the grand tour of his apartment. "...am I forgetting a third bedroom you guys have?"

"Nah," he shook his head, "just the two. But you can have mine and I'll just… I dunno, sleep on the couch."

"You can't sleep on the couch in your own home," I scoffed.

"Sure I can! I'm actually growing quite accustomed to catching some Z's on 'em. These bad boys are surprisingly comfy," he pat the armrest next to him and beamed. "In fact, dunno if I can ever go back to a lame ol' bed again!"

Rolling my eyes, I said, "I meant because Saïx will see you. Won't he have questions about you sleeping on the sofa every night?"

"Oh. Right," he laughed, fingers ruffling his hair. "Well then I can just… sleep in the room with you. On the _floor_ ," he hastily amended. "Yeah, it'll be fun! Like a slumber party every night!"

One side of my lips twitched up as I toyed with the corner of the throw pillow I was still holding snug. "You're sweet, but… no, that'd just be crazy."

"...yeah. Crazy," he averted his gaze with a tiny chuckle. Then he frowned, plucking the short hairs at the nape of his neck. "...is it though? I mean, think about it. It'd be like the next stage of our dating evolution. That's what all couples do sooner or later, right? Move in together?"

"But the baby will be here in, what…" both my eyebrows rose as I stared off into space, "...four more months? Five? I figure we'll have probably staged a breakup by then."

"Breakup?!" he jerked forward in his seat, eyes widening slightly.

I knit my eyebrows together. "Well yeah. You… didn't think we were going to be fake dating _forever_ , right?"

"Well, I…" he hunched forward, propping his elbows on his knees and folding his hands together beneath his nose as he narrowed his gaze on the floor. "...no, I guess not."

I tilted my head at him. Then opened my mouth. Then closed it. I focused on the TV instead. "...I figured… it'd be some time after we visited my parents. Depending on how it goes, of course. Once I was…" I shrugged, gripping the pillow more tightly, "... _sure_ they weren't going to try to interfere with my life anymore. After that… maybe a few more weeks? A month, perhaps? Just so it wouldn't look too quick, too… _suspicious_ or raise questions…"

Why was this so hard? Why did it make my heart squeeze, just a bit? Come on, it's not like it was a _real_ breakup! Besides, this could maybe, possibly, eventually open up the door to actually start something more real with him in the future. If I ever got the guts up to even pursue something like that… whenever he started dating again… which would be when he no longer had to focus on his schoolwork… aka when he graduated...

...in two years…

Why did that suddenly seem like an eternity?

"...yeah," he sighed and slumped back again, his arm returning to its position behind me as he stretched them both out along the backrest once more, "that all makes sense, I guess." His lips were a flat line for a few seconds, but then he grinned over at me. "Tell ya one thing, though. Fake getting over you ain't gonna be easy. Might have to try and fake win you back."

"Oh no," I stifled a soft laugh into my fingers. "Hang on, let me guess… You. In a trenchcoat. Standing in the middle of the bustling food court. Boombox held high over your head and blasting out some old, cheesy love song. That about sum it up?"

He smirked, "Ah, fan of the classics like me, I see. Good guess, but I was actually thinking less John Cusack in _Say Anything_ and more Heath Ledger in _10 Things I Hate About You_. Me. With a mic hacked into the food court's overhead speakers. Singing and dancing around on table tops while mall security chases me all over the place."

This big dork really was a sap. That is, if his taste in movies had anything to say about it.

Shaking my head in amusement, I said, "Who's to say you'd even fake want me back? Maybe it's _you_ who ends up fake dumping _me_."

He huffed out a derisive snort, "Not a chance. I'd never be dumb enough to let someone like you go." I looked away, grateful the light from the TV wasn't bright enough to reveal the gentle warmth spreading into my cheeks. Lea shrugged as he went on, "Now, dumb enough to do something stupid and royally fuck it up so you'd kick my ass to the curb however? Yeah, now _that_ sounds like it'd be pretty on brand for me."

"No, I don't think so," I smiled, resting my chin atop the seam of the throw pillow. "...thanks, Lea. I feel a lot better now. You're a… a really good friend."

Lea was quick to return the smile, "It's what I'm here for!" His gaze went back to the screen and there was a brief pause where the only sound was the low drone from the movie. "So… was that your roundabout way of wishing me a good night?"

"Hmm..." A beat before I shook my head, "Not yet. I think I'd like to stay and watch for a little while longer, if that's alright."

"It's more than alright," the corners of his eyes crinkled as he settled into his seat more comfortably. "It's alright times two."

I'm not sure exactly when it was I nodded off. Last scene I clearly remembered was our leading couple sitting at a restaurant together, their hands miming phones to their ears as they made imaginary calls to one another, so it must have been not too long after that. Next thing I knew I was blinking blearily at the television as it showed the girl now sitting on a bed in a small apartment, serenading the guy with her guitar. They both looked maybe a few years older. Must have been one of the sequels to the first movie. I was less familiar with those. It seemed Lea had stumbled upon some sort of late night marathon.

As consciousness returned to me piece by tiny piece, it slowly came to my attention that there was something... _off_ about the pillow my cheek was resting against. Like the fact that it was oddly firm. And _warm_. And…

...breathing?

Eyes fully snapping open now, they darted about to realize I'd fallen asleep on _Lea_. Against his _chest_ , to be exact. Embarrassed and panicking maybe just a smidge, I immediately tried to straighten up and away from him, only to be held firmly in place by the arm - _his_ arm - that was draped heavily around my shoulders. I furrowed my brow over at it. Wha-?

Then he made a noise and I tensed.

Took me several heart-pounding seconds to register that noise for what it was.

A snore.

Puffing out a hushed breath and forcing my muscles to relax, I tentatively, _cautiously_ turned my head to try and look up at him. Didn't work, and it only took me another second to realize why. There was a weight pressing down on the top of my hair that I hadn't really noticed until just now.

He was using my head as a pillow.

Welp. This was quite the predicament I found myself in.

Oh gosh, I just hope we'd fallen asleep roughly around the same time and had just, I don't know... naturally gravitated toward one another in our slumber? If I'd been snuggling up to him like this while he was awake the whole time, I'd never live it down.

Next thing my brain decided to alert me to was the fact that I'd misplaced my throw pillow. I must have dropped it when I'd dozed off for I was pretty sure I could feel it on the floor brushing against my bare feet. But _that_ wasn't the important part. No, the important part was what my hands had decided to do in the wake of its disappearance. Left hand? It was good. Just laying there in my lap, all well behaved and polite-like. The right one, however? Had found its way over to rest atop Lea's knee. The little trollop. Especially considering that one of his hands was currently covering it. Had it no decency? No shame?

I considered my situation for another minute. Then taking a deep breath, I decided to commence with the extraction. Should be easier now that I was fully awake and aware of my circumstances so I could approach it all with a cooler, more level head.

First I used my free hand to gently lift his arm from my shoulder and gingerly set it back down on the couch backrest. Another snore from him and I froze. After a few seconds where nothing else happened however and I was sure I hadn't disturbed him, I then proceeded to bring my hand back up, this time to delicately press my fingertips to his chin.

Careful now, _careful…_ wouldn't want to wake him…

I slowly pushed his head off mine and kept going until it lolled back onto the cushions behind him instead. With nothing left weighing me down now, I crept up onto my feet and peeked back at him to make sure he still snoozed. I was rewarded with yet another soft snore. That was all the confirmation I needed. I turned to make a break for my room.

Victory! Success! Elsa, Queen of The Daring Escape and-

_Ack!_

...okay, so something had just happened. More precisely, _two_ somethings, both occurring at the exact same time. The first? Was my arm being pulled taut and bouncing me back like a rubber band stretched too tight. I stumbled but caught myself, the carpet muffling any sound I might have made. The second? Now that was just a word. One single, solitary word:

"Stay."

That one word sent my heart catapulting up into my throat as I whipped around to discover Lea had pulled his head up and was now looking straight at me.

Fudge, fudge, fudge, _fudge!_

...but actually… wait… his eyelids were sagging heavily. Half closed and groggy. His expression slack. And now that I thought about, when he'd spoken, it had come out sounding a little… sluggish? One might even say… drowsy?

...was he still half asleep?

I haltingly raised a hand to wave in front of his face. No reaction. As my shallow breaths began to slow and my heart rate calmed, I next looked down at my other hand to see what the snag had been there. This was the one that had been on his knee with his hand on top of it. Was _still_ on top of it and, in fact, had tightened his grip around my fingers. This was what had snared me and brought my getaway to a screeching halt.

Yeesh, what a clingy sleeper he must be.

I brought my gaze back up to his face. He was still giving me that droopy, zombie-eyed stare. I tucked in my lower lip, studying him for a moment. Then I took a tiny step closer and bent over him slightly. My free hand came up, reaching for him. I froze midway, fingers curling towards my palm, hesitating. But only for a heartbeat before I was pushing forward again.

"Shh… go back to sleep," I whispered, gently stroking his hair just above his ear.

His really, _really_ soft, silky smooth hair.

Which I'd _not_ been expecting. Not at all.

Crud, I shouldn't be blushing this much.

However, it seemed to have the desired effect. His eyelids drifted all the way closed now as his head sank back down into the couch cushion. His hold on my hand relaxed enough for me to slip it free. I straightened back up, rubbing my rescued hand with the other as I watched him sleep for a few more seconds, my head tipping to one side. Then I retrieved the throw pillow from the floor and put it back on the sofa next to him before picking up the comforter to drape over him. It was only now I realized that it was too small for him for if I brought it up to cover his shoulders, it left his feet exposed.

The friggin' behemoth. Why hadn't he said anything? I'd have to see about finding a bigger one for him tomorrow.

I briefly considered turning off the TV but decided against it on the off chance the sudden lack of noise would wake him. Turning, I tiptoed back towards my bedroom, stopping in the doorway for one last backwards glance at him. Still out like a light. A grin pulled at one side of my mouth as I murmured, "Sweet dreams, sleeping beauty."

The only answer I got was a snore.

* * *

_**Author's Note:** __Our awkward penguin did it! She intentionally "made a move" for the first time, I'm so proud T_T Looks like our fire boi tried to make a bit of a move himself under the clocktower staircase there… with far less successful results xD One step forward, two steps back, huh? Fun fact: The ice cream this chapter, Three Wishes, is named after (you guessed it) Agrabah's keyblade and I imagine its description on the menu would look something like: "_ _This blueberry flavored soft serve will have you wishing for more! Comes in a blue cone wrapped in a ring of matching blue cotton candy, with lamp-shaped sugar cubes and a sprinkling of extra sugar to top it all off."_

_Next chapter, with that "make a move" hurdle finally overcome, what's next in our couple's fake dating adventures? Looks like there's a certain dinner with a certain Moon Boy on the horizon, how will this lil "test run" go? Will it be a resounding success or could it spell utter defeat for our pair? Not to mention the weekend with the folks is fast approaching, will our couple be ready in time? And just how DOES Lea fit his behemoth self into those itty-bitty pirate ship train carts? Some things will forever remain a mystery, but for the rest, stay tuned!_

_Thank you so much for reading, especially to those of you who have left a kudos and shared with me your thoughts and feelings on this story so far! Remember, feedback is not only welcome, but highly encouraged and super appreciated!_


	20. Chapter 20

Turns out once you've smooched a guy on the nose, things like holding his hand and other such minor displays of affection no longer seem so daunting.

Sure, even as I reached for his hand now, some small amount of mental self-cheerleading was still required in order to work myself up to it. And okay, the tiny flutter in my chest when my fingers brushed against his almost had me pulling back faster than you could say 'emotion-phobia.' But I didn't. And hey, this was _way_ more than I could have brought myself to do even just a few short days ago. This was kind of huge for me, so I think I'd earned the right to take a little pride in my headway so far. Who knew, I just might pull off my half of this whole pretend dating deal yet.

Lea glanced down at my touch. Then he grinned, pulling my hand up to press a soft kiss to the back of it before setting it back down on the dinner table, his thumb trailing light circles along my knuckles. Picking right back up where he'd left off in the conversation, he said, "Oh yeah, GUMMI ships got all sorts of badass tech going on now, the likes of which would put both Star Trek _and_ Star Wars to shame. Super, ultra, mega-laser cannons, impenetrable force fields, swarms of nanobots that can repair any and all damage just like that," he snapped his fingers. Lea then planted an elbow on the table and leaned forward to add in a conspiratorial whisper, "They even have defense systems in the form of giant, exploding space duckies."

Saïx gave him a flat look from where he sat on the other side of the table from us. "Not true."

"Sure it is!" Lea chirped, straightening back up in his chair. "I mean, how else are they gonna fight all those aliens out there?"

Propping my cheek in my free palm, I cocked an eyebrow at him as I felt an upward tug at one corner of my lips. "Aliens? As in little green men?"

"No, no, that'd just be silly," he waved off with a scoff. "As in lil _shadow_ men. Creepy bastards with big, yellow eyes and twitchy antennae." Still holding my hand, he brought both of his own up to either side of his head, miming said antennae with his index fingers.

Closing his eyes, Saïx gave a low sigh into his wine glass. "Also not true."

Lea shrugged, "Oh sure, they're not _all_ like that. There was that blue one they found over in Hawaii, what was its code name again… Experiment 626? Yeah, the government got that one covered up _real_ fast. And don't even get me started on the total dreadnought that is Schwarzgeist lurking out there somewhere in the night sky that absolutely obliterated the USS Endymion."

"The sheer amount of not true you are spouting off right now is positively staggering," Saïx deadpanned, eyelids drooping as he dabbed his napkin to his mouth. "You really need to stop staying up late every night reading all those conspiracy theories out there on the internet."

Lips curling into an evil smirk, Lea said, "But how else am I gonna royally piss you off so much?"

 _That_ earned him a small scowl from his brother.

This was basically it. The whole evening in a nutshell from the moment I'd stepped foot into Lea's apartment. Like me, it seemed that Saïx was not much of a talker, at least not amongst strangers. Unlike me however, it appeared to have less to do with social anxiety and more like he just plain wasn't a fan of the whole talking thing and so only did it when he deemed it absolutely necessary. Which I could totally respect. It was just that between the two of us, it had a tendency to leave a bit of a void in the conversation every now and then. Luckily, it was void that Lea was only too happy to fill.

Saïx had been the one to cook dinner. It seemed that that was part of the breakdown of chores in their living arrangement: he usually handled supper while breakfast was Lea's job. Saïx and I had already emptied our plates by now while Lea was still working on his, seeing as how he was otherwise preoccupied with talking a mile a minute. The meal had been a very nice chicken bruschetta pasta paired with a red wine from a fancy looking bottle. The latter I'd thought to be a bit of an odd choice, as I didn't picture Lea being much of a wine drinker. But there he was, sipping away at it, pinkie raised as he did so for an added bit of flair. I guess he just wasn't picky and would drink whatever was put in front of him. I, on the other hand, had decided not to partake. Would rather keep a clear head during this bit of subterfuge we were playing out in front of Saïx.

The point was, there was wine. And wine equaled a wine tipsy Lea. And a wine tipsy Lea, as I was discovering, equaled a chatty Lea. The boy was already chatty to begin with, but this was an all new level. This was chatty on steroids. Needless to say, he was having no trouble whatsoever keeping the conversation rolling.

"Why are we even discussing the GUMMI space program again?" Saïx asked in his bored monotone.

Lea drove his fork down into his pasta, twirling it around. "You know you're always a total slut for outer space, man. The moon and constellations and all that crap is your jam."

"Yes, but our guest," he gestured towards me, "might not find the topic nearly so interesting."

Trailing a finger along the rim of my still full wine glass, I said, "Actually, I've been fascinated by the research their lead mechanical scientist Cid Highwind has been doing in the field of warping technology. With his help, it might not be long before our ships can travel to other solar systems."

Both men just blinked silently at me for a moment.

What? So I liked to keep up on current events by reading a news article every now and again online. It really was not a big deal.

Saïx was the one to speak up first. "Yes. It's said Highwind is hoping to have a working prototype in less than five years."

Do my eyes deceive me? Was that the hint of a smile ghosting over Saïx's mouth?

Oh wow, I think I'd managed to score some points.

...not that it mattered, of course. Since this was only a fake relationship, after all, so getting in the brother's good graces didn't _really_ mean all that much to me. Not one bit. Nope.

Nuzzling his nose to my ear, Lea beamed, "Hell yeah! My baby knows shit!"

"More than you do at least," Saïx sniffed blandly.

Expression relaxing into a sly grin now, he shot back, "I know enough to know about an astral sea monster whose sheer mass is gargantuan enough to blot out the very sun, the terror of the cosmos, eater of spacecrafts and destroyer of worlds, the dreaded galactic space whale," he paused for dramatic effect before splaying a hand out before him as he intoned in hushed reverence, "...Monstro."

Saïx grumbled under his breath and facepalmed.

"By my count, that's the eighth time he's done that tonight," Lea stage whispered to me. "Just five more and I'll have beat my all-time record."

I gave a low hum of amusement. "I suppose it's important to have goals in life."

He snorted, returning his attention to his food as he scooped a forkful into his mouth. I noticed that he'd incidentally stained one side of his lips in the process and I had a brief flashback to a familiar scene of Sora and Kairi. Of the pair of them sitting in the food court and Kairi kissing away a similarly located blotch on her boyfriend. Now _that_ right there had been a seriously advanced dating technique and one I was in no way ready to try out myself. You kidding me? I was still very much a beginner here and the very idea of trying to pull off such a maneuver already had my ears turning pink. That said, a newbie like me still had some options, especially with my newfound ability to make the first move and actually touch my (fake) boyfriend without completely spazzing out.

I tucked in my lower lip, hesitating briefly as my pulse thudded a little more loudly against my eardrums. But then I slowly lifted my hand.

Lea visibly stiffened as he felt my thumb brush at the corner of his mouth, wiping the smudge away. As I began to retract my arm however, he dropped his fork to snatch my wrist and stop me. I arched an eyebrow at him. He smiled back with hooded eyes. Then he gently tugged my thumb up to his lips and licked the sauce off it.

Breath hitching, I yanked my hand free of his grasp. His smile just turned smug as he winked at me.

Apparently, Wine Tipsy Lea had even less boundaries than usual.

As I wiped my thumb with a napkin and ducked my head to hide my boiling cheeks, I heard Saïx mutter, "One has to wonder what a woman of your obvious intelligence and sophistication even sees in an asinine clown such as my brother."

"Well let me think about it," Lea's eyes danced as he folded his hands together, steepling his index fingers so the joined tips touched his mouth. "Perhaps it's my devilish charm and debonair good looks?"

"Oh come now," he said cooly with another sip of his wine, "if you're going to be making things up, you should attempt to make them at least halfway credible."

"He makes me laugh," I suddenly heard myself saying. As both pairs of eyes turned towards me, I immediately felt self-conscious. I mean seriously, what a stupid, cliché thing to say. But that didn't make it any less true, any less… _meaningful_. I wasn't someone who laughed a lot. In fact, before I'd run out on my wedding, I could probably count the number of times I'd laughed in the last year on one hand.

Fidgeting with my fingers, I pushed forward, "He's sweet… and thoughtful. And genuine. He's not afraid to be himself. And because of that, I find it easier to be… _myself..._ around him." Another thing that did not come easy to me.

As Lea slipped an arm around my shoulders so he could pull me closer and plant a swift peck to my temple, Saïx gave a soft harrumph, "Well, I guess there's no accounting for taste."

"Psst, Saïx," Lea lowered his voice, bending forward over the table and cupping a hand to his mouth. "The moon landing was faked."

With a heavy sigh through his nose, he merely rose from his chair and started gathering the plates and silverware together. As he reached for mine, I protested, "No, that's okay, I can take care of it."

"You're the guest," he said simply as he swiped it up in one smooth motion.

"Best not argue, otherwise he might unleash his berserker wrath on you," Lea sniggered to me. However, when Saïx next took his plate away (still with food on it), he snapped, "Hey! I wasn't done with that!"

"Then you should have eaten faster," he responded dryly.

He stuck his tongue out at him. "Oh yeah? Well the earth is flat." As Saïx turned towards the kitchen, the plates stacked in his hand "accidentally" smacked into Lea's forehead, forcing a small grunt out of him.

I hid a grin behind my hand as Lea pressed his fingertips to the fresh sore spot with a soft _tch_. Then he downed the rest of his wine as he stood up himself, gathering the other glasses between his fingers on one hand while balling up napkins together in the other. He looked at me, face brightening, "Why don'tcha go on and take a seat in the living room. I'll join ya after I finish helping Saïx clean up."

"Alright," I nodded. He used a hand (the one stuffed full of napkins) to pull my seat out as I stood and gave him a tiny smile before moving past him. Reaching the blue sofa, I moved some of its mismatched pillows to clear a space and took a seat on the far end, tugging the hem of my dress down to cover my knees as I listened to the sound of running water and clinking dishware coming from the kitchen.

I didn't have to wait long before the boys were rejoining me. Lea came bounding over first, plopping himself unceremoniously down onto the couch with me.

Leaving one whole cushion space between us.

I furrowed my brow over at him. However, I did not have to wonder for long at his unexpected seating choice.

For next thing I knew, he'd flopped over onto his side and was using my lap as a makeshift pillow.

My eyes widened and I jolted, one hand going to my chest. His cheek nestled against my leg as one hand went to my knee, his thumb tracing lightly along its top curve over the fabric. "Mmm… you're comfy!" he sighed contentedly.

It was official. Wine Tipsy Lea had absolutely _zero_ boundaries.

Halfway into taking a seat into a maroon armchair to our right, Saïx stopped. Then he straightened back up to his full height with a tired, drawn-out huff. "Perhaps some coffee would be in order."

I gradually relaxed, my eyes crinkling as I glanced down at Lea with a resigned smile. He was like a kitten cuddling into my lap. A really _big_ kitten. I half expected him to start purring. "Perhaps that might be for the best," I murmured in agreement.

My eyes lifted long enough to follow Saïx as he made his way back over towards their kitchen, long blue hair swaying behind him as he went. When I looked back down, I realized with a tiny start that one of my hands had taken it upon itself to start lightly stroking Lea's hair.

Huh. How did that cheeky little devil get there?

I should stop.

But it was just so very... _soft_. Softer than I remembered. So soft that it felt like I was doing something wrong, something… forbidden by daring to touch it.

...okay, I really, _really_ needed to stop.

...ten seconds. Just ten more measly, innocent seconds, then I'd stop.

There was a low, pleased hum in Lea's throat as my fingers continued to slowly run through his fiery locks. Then he rolled over onto his back, capturing my hand with his to press a gentle kiss into my palm. It tickled and my heart stuttered as I felt a familiar heat creeping up my neck. He... _did_ know Saïx was no longer nearby to witness this little production he was putting on... right? Then again, maybe Lea was too far gone by now to realize his brother had left the room and so was still on boyfriend autopilot. Cradling my hand to his chest just over his heart, his other came up to start fiddling with the end of my braid from where it hung forward over my shoulder as he grinned up at me. "Wanna know?"

My head tipped to one side, "...know what?"

"You said what you see in me, so now it's my turn. Wanna know what I see in you?"

I blinked at him. Then my eyes briefly flicked over to Saïx just beyond the island counter where he was filling a coffee maker with water. Could he hear us all the way over there? Hopefully… this might be good for show. With a low snort, I planted my elbow on the armrest next to me, propping my cheek against my knuckles as I dropped my gaze back to Lea. "Sure, why not? Go for it."

This should be good.

His grin twitched wider. "You're kooky."

...well I certainly wasn't disappointed.

Though that wasn't quite the word I would have expected out of him. In fact, not the word I would have ever expected out of _anyone_ when used to describe me.

One of my eyebrows quirked. "I'm… kooky?"

He nodded, "Mm-hm! Most people don't know it, but it's there. Way, way deep down in here," he tapped a finger to a spot just below my collarbone before going back to toying with my braid. "Ya try to keep it hidden. Don't like people seeing that side of you for some reason. But I've caught glimpses of it. I like it. Makes me feel like I'm in on a secret no one else is. And you're fun. Hella smart, too. And _so_ goddamn pretty."

"That so?" I muttered, resisting the urge to roll my eyes.

Wine Tipsy Lea was laying it on a bit thick.

Still… I was smiling despite myself.

"And that. Right there," he tapped a finger to my lips. "Your smile is gorgeous. Was the first thing about you that had me head over heels. I love being the one to put it there. Love being the one that can make you laugh."

Did I say a _bit_ thick? Try instead a _lot_ thick. _Too_ thick. Like two metric tons too thick. Jeez, perhaps I'd be better off hoping Saïx _couldn't_ actually hear all this. Even he might think it a bit too much to be believable.

Lea's eyes softened as he continued to stare up at me, his hand shifting over from my mouth to lightly graze his curled fingers against my cheek, leaving tiny tingles in their wake. "...I wish we were real."

Insert record screech.

E-E-Excuse me?!

My heart stopped. Like legit full on stopped. There were at least three full seconds there where if a medical examiner had checked my pulse, they would have probably declared me dead.

Lea froze, his whole body locking up. His eyes grew round and his face blanched, his expression now a perfect mirror of what I imagined my own must have looked like in that exact moment as he seemingly and immediately realized his mistake.

Now I _definitely_ hoped Saïx couldn't overhear us! There seemed to be no reaction from over in the kitchen beyond the sound of water beginning to boil. Which was good. Maybe our cover wasn't blown and-

...and so _not_ the point right now! The point was… was…

Ex- _friggin'_ -scuse me?!

Wish we were real? What did that even _mean?_ Real what? Did he mean that he wanted… that he wished he and I… that we were a… an actual, honest to god coupl-

No! No, I must have _misheard_. Yeah, that had to be it! He hadn't said… er… what I _thought_ he'd said. No, what he'd probably actually said was, uh… was he wished we were… _seals_. Yeah, that's probably what it was! Seals were neat! And… and cute! I wouldn't blame him for wanting to be one, especially in his less than totally sober state! Or… or… he could have said that he… he _fished_ … for _Neil_. Who was Neil, one might wonder? Got me! But you know what? Good for Lea, helping his ol' pal Neil out with fishing like that. Nice guy, that Lea. Such a giver, such a-

"TORS!" Lea suddenly shouted, practically making me jump out of my skin as he shot up off my lap and scooted all the way over to sit at the opposite end of the couch. He had a hand clasped over his nose and mouth, doing a poor job of hiding his reddened (wine flushed?) face. "Real _tors_! I wish we were _realtors_ , is what I was trying to say!" he hastily clarified, shooting a weak chuckle my way.

I stared at him blankly.

Wha…? Realtors…?

Apparently, he wasn't done. "Yeah! You know, one of those power couples you hear about all the time! Partners in everything, from romance to real estate! That's some real lovey-dovey crap right there, don'tcha think? The epitome of passion! The sappiest dream to ever sap! The-"

"What inanity are you babbling on about now?" Saïx returned, causing me for the second time in as many minutes to nearly die of cardiac arrest. He was carrying two steaming mugs, one in each hand.

"Nothing! Not a damn thing! Nope! Total nonsense!" Lea said quickly, snatching up one of the cups and rapidly blowing on the coffee a couple times before knocking back the whole thing in one go. He pulled the cup away from his lips with a wince, probably suffering from a tongue that was now at least mildly burnt. Then he plastered on a grin, "You know how I get when I'm lost in the sauce, man. I start rambling off total bullshit that I don't even mean. Never. Mm-mm, nope, not one bit! Every word of it? Total garbage. Yup! Heh…"

I flinched back from the second warm mug that was suddenly being offered me. I'd barely had a chance to hold up my hand and shake my head before Lea was grabbing that one too, handling this one with smaller, more cautious sips.

...realtors.

Huh.

Okay, sure, why not?

Not like it was any crazier than any of the other explanations I'd come up with myself. Especially when you considered Lea was more than a little buzzed. People said nonsensical things all the time while under the influence. I'd know, I'd seen Anna in a state of three sheets to the wind on more than one occasion. You should have heard half the things she'd blathered on about at the time… adventures through magical winter wonderlands, talking snowmen, singing rock people, whole castles made of-

Shoot, Saïx was talking to me. Or rather, had _been_ talking to me for a while and now seemed to be expecting some sort of reply. Still a little rattled, I scrounged together a flimsy but polite smile, "I'm sorry, what was that?"

One thin eyebrow arched ever so slightly at me as he cradled a fuming mug between his hands. Apparently he'd gone back at some point to get one for himself as well. "...I heard you were present during one of my sleepwalking episodes a couple weeks back. I hope I didn't give you too much of a fright."

"Oh! No! No, it's-" I got distracted as I felt Lea gingerly inching back over to sit beside me. Probably trying to salvage _some_ semblance of the relationship pretense. However, his affections had become somewhat subdued, restricted now to only resting an arm along the sofa cushions behind my head and his knee brushing against mine as he continued to nurse the coffee. Regathering my train of thought, I tried again, "It's, uh… it's alright. Not your fault. Nor was I bothered by it at all. Just had to stay out of your way, is all."

"Still I-"

"Ya know what?" Lea suddenly piped up, plonking the now empty mug down onto the coffee table right next to the first one. "Sorry guys, but I think we gotta call it an early night! I'm beat! And I mean woof! Dog-tired!"

My eyebrows knit together as I glanced over at him. "...but you just chugged two full cups of coffee."

...what are you doing, you fool, shut up! He was probably trying to rescue us by putting a merciful end to what, as of the last five minutes, had officially become one royal disaster of an evening!

He bat a hand through the air, "That? Please, that was just to help sober my drunk ass up! Trust me, caffeine doesn't do jackshit to me when it comes to staying awake."

Saïx's mouth had settled into a flat line as his green gaze shifted back and forth between Lea and me. "Very well," he said finally, closing his eyes as he raised his cup to his lips, "I presume my noise canceling headphones will be a necessity while I work tonight."

I frowned. "Noise canceling…?"

Lea cleared his throat and gave a sheepish chuckle while scratching a spot behind his ear. "He, uh… thinks you're spending the night."

"Oh…" I said slowly before his words had a chance to fully sink in. Then they did. " _Oh!_ " I repeated more loudly, eyes widening as I rocketed up to my feet, "You mean sex!"

...what the actual frick, mouth?!

"Which is a thing!" Apparently, I was only getting started. Panic mode was in full effect now. "A thing d-dating couples do! Which… which we _are!_ Dating, that is. And a couple! Can't, uh… can't forget that part." Dear lord, where's a gag when you need one? "Which, I don't know w-why you would. Because _clearly_ we're a couple. Yup! That's us!" Yeesh, at least when Lea had been yammering off nonsense, he'd had wine coursing through his veins. What was _my_ excuse? "A couple! A couple who, ah…" Oh no. "...who have, er…" Don't you say it. Don't you _dare_ say it. "...who have sex!"

I winced.

Just shoot me. Shoot me now.

"Oh yeah, lots and lots of it!" Oh great. There was more. "All the time! In all s-sorts of, um… _places_. My room. _His_ room. Oh look," I pointed both my hands towards Lea's door, "there's his room now!" Make an excuse to leave. _Any_ excuse. " I think we'll go in there now and make with all the sex!" Not _that_ excuse! Pause, followed by tiny, nervous laughter from me. "Yup."

Then before I knew it, I'd bolted into said room, door crashing shut behind me. I pressed my back to it, clutching both hands to my mouth as I hyperventilated and trembled, eyes huge and unblinking as I stared off into space, registering absolutely zilch of what was in front of me now.

What.

Did.

I.

Just.

_Do?!_

You know what, cheeks? I won't even try and stop you this time. You go right on ahead and blush your nonexistent little hearts out. Fry my face to a friggin' crisp, for all I care. I won't judge. You have every right after… _that_. Whatever the heck _that_ even was just now!

Oh gosh, had I really just gone on and on about, hrm… _intimate relations?_ In front of Lea's _brother?_ That... had to be... _the_ most spectacular case of anxiety-induced word vomit to date from me yet! What was _wrong_ with me? Who _does_ that? No, seriously, I demand answers this instant, what in the everliving-

A soft knock at the door made me yelp and jump away, whipping around to face it, heart trying to jackhammer its way out of my chest. I was greeted by my own frazzled reflection staring back at me from the full-length mirror hanging there. My face could have been mistaken for a ripe, oversized tomato.

"...El?" Lea's muffled voice came through from the other side. "You might've, uh… kinda forgot something."

A crease formed between my eyebrows. Forgot something? No, I don't think so. I glanced down at myself, hands patting over my dress. Phone in pocket? Check. Shoes on feet? Check. No purse, I hadn't used one tonight. No coat, I'd thought it too warm out for it. My gaze settled on the door once more, eyes scrunching. "What did I forget?"

"...me?"

Oh.

Fudge.

After that, ah… _stirring_ speech I'd just given out there a moment ago, it would certainly help drive the point home if I had him in here with me, wouldn't it?

After all, it took two to, ahem... _tango_.

As I reached a hand towards the doorknob, I realized I hadn't even locked it. Lea must have only been knocking to be considerate. A consideration I greatly appreciated, especially when you take into account that this was in fact _his_ room that I'd taken sanctuary in. Taking a deep breath and expelling it slowly in one last ditch effort to calm my nerves, my still shaking fingers closed around the knob and twisted.

I cracked the door ajar about an inch, just barely enough for me to peek one eye through. Arms crossed and one shoulder propped against the doorframe, Lea tilted his head with a tiny smile, "Hey."

My gaze fell to my feet for a moment before flicking back up to meet his. "...hi."

"Can I come in?"

I hesitated for another heartbeat then nodded, pulling the door open further and taking a couple steps back. He turned his head to one side, calling out a quick, "Night, man!" to Saïx before walking in and closing the door.

Ah, awkward silence. Ye hath returned. Never could stay away from me for long, could you?

"So…" I hugged myself and decided to get into a staring contest with the floor. "...think he likes me?"

Lea snerked, folding one arm behind his back, hand hooking his opposite elbow as he leaned back against the mirror hanging from his door. "You kidding? He _adores_ you. Practically ready to call ya sister-in-law."

I attempted a smile. It came across as more of a grimace. "Even after I was… all…"

"...smooth and cool as a cucumber?" he supplied, his voice chipper. "Absolutely! And you said you couldn't lie," he teased. "You handled that one like a total pro!"

...oh. Wow, he was right. Not about the "pro" part, obviously, but that I had lied. For the first time since this whole charade started, I'd told a straight out, bald-faced lie. It had been a monumental failure, to be sure, but hey… we all had to start somewhere. Guess I had to take my silver linings wherever I could.

"Gah, I should have just made up some sort of… of excuse or something." I started pacing slowly, eyes still downcast as I brought one hand up to chew on my thumbnail. "Said I couldn't stay because I had an opening shift tomorrow."

He shook his head, "Saïx knows you work at the mall with me, so he also knows I woulda happily driven ya over from here, even at the crack of dawn."

Frowning, I tried again, "Well then, I could have said that… ah! That you had an early test tomorrow so I shouldn't be keeping you up late!"

"Nah, he knows me too well," he smirked, waggling his eyebrows. "Knows I'd never let a lil thing like that stop me."

I blinked. Then I buried my face in my hands with a groan. "Oh god, I can never face him again. Not after _that_." Dragging my palms down to peek out between my fingers, I grumbled, "I'm guessing it's safe to assume he's retracted his 'woman of obvious intelligence and sophistication' comment." Ha. Showed what Saïx knew.

Shrugging one shoulder, he laughed, "I wouldn't worry 'bout it too much. Just another side of your kookiness that I mentioned earlier. 'Sides, he knows what a nervous, jumpy creature you are."

Up quirked one eyebrow. "...he does?"

"Well, he does _now_."

...fair point.

One that did not make me feel better.

"And look at the bright side," Lea continued. "It's good this happened here rather than in front of your folks! Now you'll be better prepared to handle it the next time it comes up."

My lips twisted sourly, "I guess so." As bad as this already was, it would have spelled utter disaster if that little freakout had occurred during the upcoming weekend with my parents. We're talking one epic catastrophe here, like meteor-taking-out-the-dinosaurs kind of catastrophe. Then again, I didn't particularly see this exact set of circumstances arising while I was around my family. Still… best to be on the safe side. I wrinkled my brow, "Better prepared… how?"

"Ah, well…" he pursed his lips to one side, tapping a finger against his other arm. "For starters… and I'm just spitballing here, but next time you could maybe just, ya know… _not_ say the word sex repeatedly? If at all? I'm thinking this is 'less is more' kinda situation."

"...good call."

"Heh," he paused, rubbing his shoulder. "So... looks like we're bunkmates."

I lowered my gaze once more and brought my curled fingers up to my mouth, covering my deepening frown. "Yeah… looks like…"

_I wish we were real._

Gah, why was I still even thinking about that?! Lea had already explained it, hadn't he? _Realtors_. The word he had actually said, had been in the _middle_ of saying, was _realtors_. It was nothing. Absolutely nothing. Just the ramblings of a guy who'd had a little too much to drink. Why was I still stuck on this?

My face must have been an open book. "Listen, I… meant what I said earlier," he spoke abruptly and my eyes darted up to lock on his. He averted his gaze and scratched his cheek, "You can't take anything I say too seriously when I've been drinking. Often my brain is just stringing random words together and spitting out the first arbitrary bullshit it can come up with. Like a toddler that's just learned to talk, regurgitating words it doesn't even understand just cuz it heard it from someone else at some point. Half the time, the things I say when I'm liquored up don't even make any sense." His eyes settled on me once more, this time accompanied by a weak smile. "So just don't be too… _concerned_ about any gibberish that came blurting outta my stupid drunk mouth, 'kay? And you won't hear another peep of it tonight. Those two coffees are kicking in fast, so I'm much more clear headed now."

I tugged at my braid before folding my arms tightly together once more. "...okay."

And now onward to Act 1, Scene 2 of the award-winning and critically acclaimed musical: _Awkward Silence_.

"I have a lizard!"

My head rocked back at Lea's sudden declaration out of nowhere, both eyebrows shooting up my forehead. "...a lizard?"

He nodded eagerly, grinning big now. "Yeah! Wanna see? Come take a look!" He moved off to his left towards one corner of the room and for the first time I realized that there was a large glass terrarium situated on a long, low table in that spot. Lea squatted down next to it, waving me over to join him. I obliged and when I got close enough, he took hold of my hand and tugged me down into a crouch beside him. He squinted into the enclosure for a second, scanning all the rocks and plants inside before, "Ah-ha!" He pointed, tapping his finger against the glass, "There he is!"

And indeed, there he was, curled up inside a small, hollowed out log and blinking back at us. He was a tiny thing, all big eyes and blue skin except for the purple markings running down his back. "Oh wow," I slowly smiled, "you really do have a lizard. Why didn't you say anything last time I was here?"

"Cuz 'come into my bedroom so I can introduce you to my lizard' sounds a lil sketch, don'tcha think?" he chuckled, waggling his pointer finger up and down at his pet in greeting.

A soft snort. "Yeah, that might have earned you a dubious look." The critter crawled out into the open now, giving us a curious look. "Can I hold him?"

Lea flashed some dimple, "Course!" Straightening up, he moved the terrarium's lamps to one side before sliding out the lid and reaching inside, mumbling, "C'mere, Bruni." Picking the reptile up, he then offered him to me, "Now, the lil guy's usually shy at first but warms up quick and can be a bit of a flirt."

I stood as well, holding one hand out. Bruni cautiously put one stubby-toed foot on my fingers, eyeing me warily before fully walking the rest of the way into my palm. He was small enough to fit perfectly in it. Then he cocked his head up at me. I cocked mine back then hummed a low laugh, stroking a finger along the top of his head. That seemed to be all it took to win him over, for he then bellyflopped into a cuddle against my palm before rolling over onto his back.

"Bit of a flirt indeed," I murmured, rubbing his tummy with my fingertip. "What kind is he?"

"Salamander. Which, I know, technically not a lizard. But feels simpler most of the time just telling people that's what he is." He fell silent for a second, eyes crinkling as he watched us. Then he walked past me, saying, "Hey, welcome to my room by the way!"

I turned to face him and for the first time got a real good look at the place. If I had to pick one word to describe it, that word would be _pandemonium_.

Clothes were strewn about everywhere, covering floor and furniture alike - pretty much anywhere conceivable besides actually _inside_ a dresser. Bookshelves stacked high with no rhyme or reason, textbooks next to movie DVDs (from action thriller to cornball classics) next to game CD cases next to vinyl records. Walls and ceiling plastered with posters, mostly of classic rock bands, but there was the occasional renegade: one here in which a dangerous looking man posed with an _Assassin's Creed_ logo across the bottom, another one there depicting a grim reaper character dual-wielding sickles that looked to be from another video game of some sort. A queen-sized bed with black and red sheets buried beneath a mess of paper and more textbooks, along with a closed laptop and his shoulder bag tossed carelessly on top of it all.

And that was just barely scratching the chaotic surface. Needless to say, it was a lot to take in.

"Pardon the mess," he gave a rueful chuckle, scrambling to snatch clothes up off the carpet here and there to chuck into the laundry basket residing in his open closet, just under a black, full-length coat hanging from the rung in there. "Wasn't expecting any overnight visitors."

"It's, uh…" So many adjectives, so little time. As I searched for a word, I felt Bruni crawling up my sleeve. I kept an eye on him to make sure he didn't slip, but otherwise let him do his own thing. At last, I settled on, "...big."

"Yup! I got the masters! Comes complete with its own bathroom and everything," he jerked a thumb towards a second closed door on the other side of the room. By now, Bruni had found his way onto my shoulder and was snuggling into the crook of my neck. My fingers came up to pet along his spine. Narrowing his eyes on the salamander, Lea went on, "Surprisingly, Saïx prefers the smaller, cozier room. He's a minimalist, so not like he needs all that much space anyhow. Which works out for me, especially since I used to, er… heh, shall we say, host more sleepovers?"

I rolled my eyes and opened my mouth, but whatever I'd been about to say was forever lost.

For that's when Bruni did it.

He took the plunge.

Straight down into the neckline of my dress.

I yelped, arms crossing over my bosom. Lea's eyes widened, " _Motherfu-_ " He lunged forward, hands outstretched before him like he had every intention of going down in there after Bruni. Then Lea froze, seemed to think better of it and instead folded his arms together, shoving his hands into his armpits as he looked away. "You, uh…" he cleared his throat, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye, "...you okay?"

"Yeah. Just tickles a bit," I wrinkled my nose, trying not to squirm as I felt the little guy climbing around against my chest. Thankfully, it wasn't long before he moved over to start making his way down my sleeve. I gave my arm a gentle shake to help speed his progress along and eventually he came tumbling out into my palm.

"Sorry 'bout that," Lea scooped him back out of my hand into his, using the other to ruffle his hair with a tiny, bashful smile. "I know I said he was a flirt, but he's never been _this_ brazenly forward before."

Shaking my head with a snerk, I said, "It's fine, really. Don't worry about it."

Walking back over to the terrarium, he turned a scowl onto the salamander. "And what do you have to say for yourself, young man?" Bruni just answered with a lizard grin, flicking his tongue out to lick his own eyeball. "Smug lil shit," Lea grumbled, setting him back down inside his home.

One corner of my lips twitching up, I turned to take another look around his room. Despite Lea's hasty tidying up, his carpet was still a disaster zone of shirts and other garments. As I began to carefully navigate it, I asked, "So how are we doing this?"

"Doing…?" I could hear the frown in his voice.

I looked back at him. "Sleeping arrangements?"

"Oh! That's easy!" Having now set the lid and lamps back into their rightful places, Lea walked towards me with his grin resurfacing. "You get the bed, I'll take the floor."

My eyelids drooped. "You can't sleep on the floor, that's ridiculous. It's your room."

"Exactly!" he started clearing the papers up off his comforter, gathering them all together and tucking them away inside one of the textbooks. "It's _my_ room, so I'll sleep wherever I want in it! And tonight, the floor's looking pretty damn good!"

I huffed. "Enough with the chivalry already. _I'll_ sleep on the floor."

He picked up his laptop and made his way over to a large mound of clothes. Oh wait. There was a desk hiding under there, or so I realized as soon as he started shoving all the shirts and whatnot aside. Placing the laptop down on top of it, he then shrugged back at me, "Hey, if that'll make ya happy, more power to ya. Doesn't change the fact that I will not be taking my siesta in that bed tonight."

A low harrumph in my throat. "Fine."

"Fine," he agreed, now opposite the bed from me as he hung his bag from a wall hook there. Then he squinted one eye at me, "So it's settled then. We're both sleeping on the floor. Like the couple of rational, mature, grown-ass adults that we are. While the perfectly good bed goes to waste. Cuz that makes total sense."

I shot him a deadpan look. "Alright, fine then. Bruni gets the bed."

He slapped his forehead, dragging his hand down his face with an exasperated laugh. "C'mon, El, will you just take the bed please? I won't be able to fall asleep if I know you're just curled up on the floor."

"Sounds like not my problem," I crossed my arms with a smirk. Oh-ho, that's right. I could be stubborn when I wanted to be.

"Woman! Just take the freaking bed before I throw you in the damn thing!" both his hands gestured in mild annoyance at said bed.

Scoffing, I turned my head to one side. "Please, it's the twenty-first century, your neanderthal tactics won't work on me."

Green eyes flashing, he said in a low, even voice, "They will if I make good on 'em."

My gaze narrowed on him now. "You wouldn't dare."

He bent forward, fists planted on the mattress as he gave me a tiny glare across it. "Wanna bet?"

My legs turned traitor and defected, sitting me down on the bed so quick, you would have missed the motion if you'd blinked.

"There now," his face immediately lit up like the first rays of sunlight at dawn. "Was that so hard?"

I made a little _hmph_ in my throat, tucking my legs beside me as I smoothed my dress over my knees with as much dignity as I could muster. "I'll have you know that I _chose_ of my _own_ free will to take the bed tonight and it had nothing to do with any thinly veiled threats that may or may not have been made on your part." I unzipped my ankle boots, letting them fall to the carpet below with a couple of heavy thuds. "I mean, I am the guest after all, it's only proper etiquette that I sleep in the bed. I'm just making sure you're adequately performing your role as the host."

A soft snerk came from his nose as he kicked off his own shoes and spread his arms wide to give me a mock bow, "Well, thank you, Miss Manners, I dunno what I'd ever do without you."

"You're welcome," I sniffed lightly. It was nice of him to let me have this. I then felt the bed quake beneath me as Lea flopped down beside me, stretching out comfortably and cushioning his head with his arms. I blinked down at him. "...I'm sorry, did that conversation just end differently than I thought it did?"

He raised an eyebrow at me, "Hm?"

"Thought you were taking the floor."

"I am, but that's not until lights out. Right now, we're just chilling!" he beamed. But then his expression relaxed and he propped himself up slightly on his elbows, cocking his head at me. "This is okay, right?"

"Er…" I glanced away, gnawing on my bottom lip.

Yeesh, I seriously needed to grow up. This _wasn't_ a big deal. Like, at _all_. So what if we were sitting in the same bed? Nothing to freak out about. I mean, sure, I'd never shared a bed with a guy before, not even my ex. Come to think of it, I'd never even been in a boy's _bedroom_ before. But hey, there was a first time for everything. This would be fine. _I_ would be fine.

"...yeah, it's okay," I finally responded. He frowned, not looking convinced. I put on my best brave smile and managed a tiny laugh, "Really, it's fine." Or at least it _would_ be once we stopped talking about it. Wanting to move the conversation along to something else, I searched my brain for a new topic. "So… you and Saïx…" I drew my knees up, hugging them to my chest, "...do you always mess with each other like that?"

"Oh yeah, all the time," he chuckled, settling back down into his pillow and folding one arm back behind his head. "Nothing says you care like making the other person's life a constant living hell!"

Settling my chin down onto my knees, I snorted. "Remind me never to let you care about me."

"Too late!" he chirped. My eyeroll belied the tiny cartwheel my stomach was doing. "'Sides, all siblings are like that. I'm sure you and Anna have terrorized the crap outta each other more times than you can even count."

"Well yeah," I turned my head to look over at him, resting my ear to my legs instead, "but that was way back when we were children. We grew out of it a long time ago."

Lea grinned cheekily, "Oh really? I seem to recall a certain someone chasing her sister 'round the living room trying to straight up murder her dead not hardly more than a week ago."

Wow, had that really only been just last week? It felt like eons ago by this point. A soft noise of contempt huffed out through my nose, "Don't exaggerate. I didn't try to murder her."

"How did it go again? ...ah, I believe your exact words to her were, and I quote, 'dip you in liquid nitrogen, snap every frozen limb off your body one by one, and _then_ I'll kill you.' That about sum it up?"

I pursed my lips to the right, "...there were extenuating circumstances."

"Heh," he stared up at the ceiling, "if ya say so."

I lifted my head back up, my arms loosening somewhat around my legs as I considered my next words carefully. "About Saïx… can I ask what happened?" Lea glanced back at me quizzically and I clarified, "I mean with…" I tapped a finger to the bridge of my nose.

"Oh, his scar?" he rolled over onto his side towards me, bracing his head in one hand. "Old battle wound from our time in the foster system. Same shithead who let us two numbskull brats play with a chainsaw. Negligent and abusive. Real winning combo there, huh?"

"You mean a _foster parent_ did that to him? On _purpose?_ That's terrible," I breathed, looking horrified.

"S'okay," he gave a one-shouldered shrug, then smirked wickedly. "I retaliated by burning his house down."

My eyes widened, "Did you really?"

Lea sighed, "Unfortunately, no, but not for lack of trying. Only managed to set a bed ablaze and blacken a few curtains before the fire department showed up."

I stared at him blankly. "I am just... simply _amazed_ that you survived long enough to make it to adulthood. Either of you."

He blew out an amused _pft_ through his teeth. "Yeah, Saïx and I were definitely prime candidates for the Darwin Awards growing up. Told ya, we were lil hellions forged straight from the fiery pits of El Diablo. Hey, speaking of Ol' Bullseye over there..." he trailed off as he suddenly sat himself up.

"Bullseye?" I asked, arching an eyebrow his way while watching him fold his legs beneath himself so he could stand on his knees atop the mattress.

"Ya know. Mr. X-Marks-The-Spot," he tacked on by way of explanation, abruptly shoulder-slamming into the wall behind us just above his pillows and making me jolt.

...the heck?

"...you mean Saïx?" I furrowed my brow, wincing as he followed it up by crashing his elbow against the wall next. "Aren't those nicknames a bit… mean?" My question was punctuated with another loud thump.

Seriously, what on earth…?.

"Nah, he likes it." _Whack!_ "Knows they're terms of endearment." _Bang!_ "Only from me though. Anyone else ever even so much as _thought_ about calling him anything like that, I'd make sure next time they turned up would be in a bodybag." _Whump!_ "'Sides, you should hear half the shit he calls me, especially when he's royally ticked." _Thwack!_ "This one time, he-"

"Wait. Hold it. Stop," I held up my hands, eyes flicking back and forth between him and the wall. "...what exactly is it that you are doing?"

"Huh?" he stilled, blinking at me a couple times. "Oh this?" his shoulder rammed into the surface once more. "This is the wall I share with Saïx's room."

...well okay then, sure, that _totally_ and _one hundred percent_ cleared up my utter confusion and lack of comprehension.

Not.

"Alright," I said, stretching the word out. "And so…?"

"So he's come to expect a certain level of enthusiasm on my part whenever I'm entertaining a lady friend," Lea winked and clicked his tongue before once again striking the wall.

"Oh?" I frowned down at my hands. Then it clicked with another louder, " _Oh!_ " Followed by a slower, more quiet, "Oh…" Cheeks warming now, I looked back over at him, "You mean you… that is, against the wall, you've… oh." A pause while my eyes shifted about in my awkwardness. "But wouldn't the headboard get in the-" I stopped, glancing back over my shoulder and answering my own question. "Oh… oh, I see. No headboard. Got it. How very, er..." I cleared my throat and ducked my head to my knees, muffling into them, "...very practical."

I heard him snerk as the beating the wall was taking continued. "You're funny when you're flustered, ya know that?"

My face cranked up the heat dial even further and I scowled.

If you listened closely, the signs of a very steady, very distinct rhythm to the pounding could be heard beginning to take shape.

...I needed to stop listening so closely.

My eyebrows knit together as I then remembered something. "Wait… didn't Saïx say something about noise canceling headphones?"

"Well yeah, so he's not _hearing_ any of this, but he can still _see_ whenever any of the crap on his shelves or any framed pictures or anything else that might be up against his side o' the wall shakes from the impact," he shrugged, halting to puff out a noisy breath and wipe his forehead with the back of his hand. Apparently, he was working up a sweat. Then he grinned brightly, "This is actually kinda fun! Wanna have a go at it?"

I shot him a flat look. "...I think I'm good, thanks."

"You sure?" Another slam. "It's actually pretty satisfying. One might even say cathartic. Got any pent-up aggression you gotta work out?" And another, this one taking the form of a punch. He immediately regretted that one, eliciting a pained hiss as he shook out his now reddening fingers.

"Yeah, no," I rapidly shook my head, "no pent-up aggression here. Fresh out." Insert weak chuckle at my lame joke that was neither funny nor an actual joke.

"Suit yourself," he laughed, smacking the wall hard with an open palm this time. Then his back snapped straight and his face lit up, "Oh yeah! Before I forget…" he pivoted to his left, reaching into his messenger bag he'd hung up earlier and rooting around in it.

I snorted, "Done already?"

"Just giving that wall a breather," he said, not looking up from his searching. "We've found some other surface to bear the brunt of all our lovemaking for now, but we'll probably be back to this one later."

Oh gosh. Way to go, mouth, you just had to ask, didn't you? Just when my cheeks had begun settling down too.

"Ah! Found it!" he triumphantly pulled something out of the bag. Flopping back down to once more lay flat on the bed beside me, he held it out towards me, "Pour vous, ma petite amie jolie."

I squinted at the booklet in his hand. Or more precisely, a catalog. "Twilight University?" I read the bold lettering as I reached out to take it, staring at the image on the cover of a handful of young adults gathered around in a small circle of desks and looking photogenically excited about education.

"Yup! It's the course listings for next semester at my college. Lookie here," he opened the booklet up, leaving it propped in my hands as he started thumbing through it quickly. "Ah, there!" he stopped on a page, resting his head on my shoulder as he pointed to one of several listings that had been circled here. "They offer a few different introductory drama classes ya might be interested in."

I blinked down at the catalog as vague memories of a conversation I'd had with Lea last time I was here to help him study started coming back to me. "...you remembered?" I asked quietly.

"'Course!" I could feel his cheek pull into a smile against my shoulder. "It seemed important to you, so how could I forget?"

Honestly? I _myself_ had forgotten. But to be fair, I _had_ had a lot on my mind the past couple weeks, what with suddenly having a boyfriend now (pretend or otherwise), trying to figure out how to make a proper show of being a girlfriend, and stressing out over the all too soon to come visit with my parents. Frankly, my life had been turned upside down as of late and had become the very definition of insanity. There had just quite simply been no time to think about childhood fantasies of singing and performing in musicals.

But I guess… right here, right now in Lea's room, I had a bit of a reprieve. I mean, it's not like there was anything exactly pressing at this very moment, nothing that couldn't wait until tomorrow at least. I suppose I had a few seconds I could spare to entertain the thought. It couldn't hurt anything…

"...so where is Twilight University exactly?" I stretched my legs out to lay flat on the mattress, crossing my ankles and resting the open booklet down in my lap. "Is it close to my apartment?"

He hummed low in thought. "Probably a bit too far if you're on foot. But maybe we could carpool there. And hey," he lifted his head to glance over at me, "I still got a free elective course or two that I need to take. I could enroll in the class with ya!"

I felt a grin tugging at one corner of my lips as I looked back down at the catalog, absently trailing my fingers down one of the circled paragraphs. "I think I'd like that…"

"Yeah?" he asked softly and for a second I thought I might have sensed him leaning in a little closer. But it must have just been in my head, for now he was pulling away to flop over onto his back on his side of the bed once again, making a small cough into his fist. "I, uh… talked to my friends too. The ones who run the local community theater. You're in luck! They're between shows at the moment and are actually gonna be holding auditions soon for their next one. Sometime this week, I think. It's a musical too!"

"Really?" I returned my gaze to him, closing the booklet but using a finger to hold the page. A sigh then escaped me as I worried my bottom lip between my teeth, "I don't know… I doubt I'm ready for anything like that."

Lea shook his head with a chuckle, "Ready for what? Just to talk to 'em? It's not like you actually hafta audition or anything. Nah, you can just head down, meet them, get some deets… maybe find out the where and the when so you can go and just watch other people tryout, ya know? Just get a feel for it, if you want."

He made a good point. And I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious. I could go and just ask some questions, that's all. Surely, there would be no harm in that. "Maybe…"

"Well if you _do_ decide you wanna drop in for a lil chat with them, their day job is over at Halloween Town in the mall. They should both be on the clock there around noon tomorrow. Ask for Jack or Sally and just tell 'em I sent ya," he jabbed a thumb into his chest with a big grin, "got it memorized?"

"Jack or Sally… okay," I nodded, responding with a small smile of my own. "I might do that. Thanks, Lea."

"Always happy to be of service! Now," he hopped up off the bed and made his way over to one of his shelves that was pure anarchy incarnate, "whaddya think? You up for a movie?"

The corners of my eyes crinkled and I set the catalog aside on the nightstand. "I could be. What are the options?"

He rubbed his chin, scrutinizing the mess crammed into the rack before pulling out a couple DVD cases, one from the top shelf and the other from somewhere in the middle. He held them up in either hand for me, "I'm thinking either _Sixteen Candles_ or _The Labyrinth_. Thoughts?"

I looked between the two choices. Then my eyes scanned about the room and I frowned. "I'm thinking it's going to be hard to watch either of them without a TV."

"Without a-?" he blinked a couple times, looking over to his right. Then he sighed, "Hang on a sec," as he tossed the movies down onto the foot of the bed and made his way over to another towering pile of clothes against the wall directly across the room from his bed. "Watch and be amazed as I make a flat screen appear outta thin air in three… two…" he whipped the garments aside with a flourish, revealing the television beneath, "Ta-da!"

"Ah," I gave a polite clap and settled more comfortably down into his pillows, "I stand corrected. Though who needs movies when we have your amazing wizardry to keep us entertained?"

He scratched the back of his head, "Heh, it'd be a short magic show. 'Fraid I just got the one trick up my sleeve."

"Too bad." I paused, eyeing the DVD cases. "Make it a double feature?"

He snapped his fingers and snatched them both back up.

"Girl after my own heart. Pure genius."

* * *

 _**Author's Note:** _ _Ah, yet another classic cliché for the books: our couple encounters one room, one bed for the night xD Also, fun fact: I started out this chapter stumped for what they should be talking about over dinner. Then I asked my bestie, who simply said: "gummi ships." And I just laughed it off at first, all "naw, that wouldn't make sense for this AU." But then it churned in my mind for a few minutes and I was like "wait… no… I think I can make this work…" And thus the Global Union for Multigalactic Mobility Investigation aka GUMMI Space Program aka NASA rip-off was born xD And further thus, Lea being an alien conspiracy-nut JUST for the sake of pissing of his space-loving half-bro was born xP Anyhoo! For those of you who haven't seen Frozen 2 yet (for shame, it's SO good, I demand you go out and watch it THIS INSTANT), Bruni the salamander is from that! He's a fire spirit in the movie with legit fire powers, so I got excited to give the fire boi a fire lizard for a pet! Also, maybe you can start to see the inklings of actual plot starting to sneak back into this story xD Slowly, we'll get back on course, but not before at least one more hijinks-y misadventure takes place… hehehe…_

_Thank you so much for reading, especially to those of you who have left a kudos and shared with me your thoughts and feelings on this story so far! Remember, feedback is not only welcome, but highly encouraged and super appreciated!_


	21. Chapter 21

Cinnamon.

The scent of it.

That was the first thing I became aware of.

It was so… _familiar_ and spicy and warm. The warmth spread into my cheeks and brought a smile to my lips, small and unbidden. Sunlight against my closed eyelids was the second thing I became aware of as it melted away the last dregs of sleepiness from my mind. I'd been dreaming. I wondered what about… must have been something good. I quietly yawned and stretched where I lay flat on my back before, slowly by surely, I opened my eyes.

Then I froze and my heart gave a violent jolt.

That wasn't my ceiling.

This wasn't my bed.

That-

_That wasn't my arm draped across my stomach with its hand resting on my hip._

I mean, not unless it had gained some serious muscle mass from pumping the soft serve/milkshake machine at work. And even then, those muscles would have had to of been on some sort of weird time delay for them to just so suddenly and quite literally _pop_ into existence overnight while I'd been asleep. Now granted, I don't know a lot about the way human anatomy works, particularly when it comes to muscles. That said, I think it was a safe bet to say that _none_ of it worked _that_ way.

Oh gosh, and I was just now becoming aware of a second unidentified arm. This one beneath the small of my back. I had to wonder how it'd gotten under me without waking me up. Or maybe… maybe it hadn't so much as gotten under me as I had rolled on top of it? Gah, who knew? And honestly, who really cared? The point wasn't _how_ it got there but just the fact that it _was_ there!

Confusion and panic levels skyrocketing, I tore my eyes away from the mystery arms, resting my head back into the mystery pillow to stare back up at the mystery ceiling. Then I craned my neck to the left to take in the mystery room with all the mystery clothing tossed about everywhere. Then I craned it to the right to-

-to come face to quite literal face with… well, a _face_.

My hand shot up to clamp over my mouth, silencing the startled gasp trying to escape. Heart slamming against my ribcage now, my wide eyes looked at the face. And I mean, _really_ looked at it now that I was over the initial jumpscare. And I realized…

It was Lea's face.

More precisely, Lea's _sleeping_ face.

Fingers still clutched over my lips, my rapid breathing through my nose gradually began to try and normalize as last night slowly started coming back to me. The dinner with Saïx. My nervous babbling that had led to the impromptu sleepover in Lea's room. The lizard - no, not lizard, _salamander_ \- named Bruni. Sitting in Lea's bed with him while we watched movies together. Though it hadn't so much as been _watching_ as more so _talking_ over them. And laughing. Oh yeah, there had been a lot of that, oddly enough. Well, odd for me, anyway. I remembered making it all the way through the first movie and starting the second one, but I couldn't remember finishing it. I guess I must have dozed off somewhere in the middle of it.

Lea too, it seemed. He was now curled up on his side next to me. Both of us were still on top of the comforter and if you hadn't guessed already, those were in fact his arms across my stomach and under my back. Though they certainly hadn't been there _before_ I'd nodded off. Neither had been that leg of his that was currently slung across both mine, which was a thing that was just now coming to my attention. There must have been a remarkable amount of shifting around in our sleep on _both_ our parts last night.

Well, well, Slumbering Lea… we meet again. We really have to stop bumping into each other like this.

But now the real question was… what to do?

Extract myself and make a hasty retreat without waking him, of course! I'd done it once before and, by gum, I could do it again! Sure, last time had been a little easier, since we'd just been sitting on a couch and the whole situation had been a little less… _tangled_. But so what if this time around was a little more challenging? I like a challenge!

I drew in a long breath, held it for a few seconds, then released it as soundlessly as possible. Okay, let's do this! First order of business? The top arm. Should be simple enough, right? Next would be the leg, which might be a bit trickier, but I'd cross that bridge when I got to it. Debating the best strategy for dealing with the arm for a few seconds, I at last settled on gripping one of his fingers between my index and thumb and gingerly, oh so _very_ gingerly picking it up.

Easy does it now. No rush. Remember, slow and steady wins the race!

I'd only managed to lift his hand a couple inches however when I heard a low noise in his throat. I stiffened, stopping immediately and turning my head to look over at him, fearing I'd disturbed him from his dreams. But no, he seemed to be making the sound in his sleep. Frowning and furrowing his brow too, no less.

Suddenly, his hand broke free of my grasp and latched back onto my hip before both his arms were pulling me to him, hugging tightly around my waist as I was brought chest-to-chest with him. My cheeks burned red hot and I had to swallow my squeak as he buried his face into the crook of my neck, nuzzling his nose in close and inhaling deeply. Then he sighed and his whole body began to relax once more as he released a soft snore.

...jeez, he really _was_ such a clingy sleeper!

Also, this had just made escaping a _whole_ lot harder. What with him more firmly wrapped around me now, I had no clue how I was going to disentangle myself without waking him up.

His hold on me had at least slackened a bit, if only enough for me to ease back slightly. We were still pretty much nose to nose, but I had managed to regain a few bare inches between our bodies before being stopped by his arms still looped around my middle. Pondering how to overcome this new obstacle, I blew a few stray, frazzled bangs out of my face and looked at him again.

I mean, it's not like I had much else to do at the moment. Not while I was so thoroughly and undeniably stuck.

...gosh, he really was pretty, wasn't he? One might even say painfully so. Even with his guyliner all smudged and smeared like that. Even while he was asleep. Or perhaps, even _more_ so while he was asleep. I don't know… maybe it just seemed that way because I could stare at him so openly without fear of being caught and getting flustered over it.

_I wish we were real._

Those words suddenly came drifting back to me once more and I had to wonder...would it really have been so bad? If that's what he'd really said and truly meant it? I mean, one would think I should have been happy to hear those words, what with my silly little crush on him. And actually, I think there _had_ been a tiny part of me that hadbeen happy. But it had gotten swiftly smothered and crushed under sheer, blind, uncontrollable panic. After all, there's a big difference between hoping for something and actually getting it. And just because a tiny wish in your heart might have the possibility of coming true, doesn't mean you're actually ready for it to, or… or _prepared_ to open yourself up and deal with being so… so…

...vulnerable...

Not that it mattered, of course. Because that's _not_ what he'd actually meant. He'd told me so himself. Stated it in no uncertain terms.

But… if say, for the sake of argument, he _had_ actually meant it… what was I so afraid of? Really? Lea would never hurt me… right? No, I don't think he could, even if he tried, even if he wanted to. He was too sweet. He was too caring and gentle. He was-

Oh dear god, he was waking up.

Sucking in a breath, I tensed as I saw him start to shift and stir, as his eyelashes gave a little flutter before cracking ever so slightly open.

I, of course, proceeded to do the only logical and rational thing I could do in such a situation.

I screwed my eyes shut and pretended to be asleep.

Deal with the awkwardness of him knowing I'd been watching him while he slumbered? Uh-uh. Nope. No thank you. But crud, now I was too rigid, my face too scrunched up in my distress. He'd never buy the whole snoozing act, not like this! Come on, Elsa, be more natural! Relax, damn it, relax!

My mouth fell open and my tongue lolled out.

...not _that_ relaxed!

I quickly tucked my tongue back in and cinched my mouth shut, hoping against all hope he hadn't woken up enough to witness that bit of unseemliness. If he had, there was no reaction. None that I could hear anyway. In fact, I wasn't hearing much of _anything_ from him. Nor had his arms so much as even budged one millimeter from my waist. He… _had_ woken up… right? Should I check? No, no, that might give me away. His breathing, at least, no longer sounded like he was asleep. But if that was true, what was he even-

A sudden heavy sigh from him startled me, _almost_ making me jump and blow my cover, but I barely managed to keep it together. Then I felt him removing his hands, taking extra care and caution when easing the one out from underneath me. I dutifully and with great earnest continued to play dead. The bed then shifted and I knew he had stood up. There were a few beats of silence before a soft rustling noise could be heard… the shuffling of clothing, maybe? I wasn't quite sure. Listening to it for a few more seconds, my curiosity got the better of me and I furtively peeked one eye open.

My face erupted into searing, molten heat so fast, you would have mistaken it for the surface of the sun.

For there Lea stood - his back to me in all its leanly muscled glory - in nothing but his _boxers_.

My eye slammed shut again.

But not before I had a chance to see that said boxers were covered in cute, little cartoon ninjas.

Oh my god, oh my god, oh my _god!_ Why was he _naked?!_

Well, not _technically_ naked, since he still had something on over his-

What the actual frick, was I _actually_ arguing _semantics_ with myself right now?!

...I should look again.

What?! No, I absolutely should _not!_

I _should_. Purely for reconnaissance reasons, of course, just to keep tabs on what he's doing.

No. _No!_ I'm putting my foot down on this. What if he's even more naked now?

Why on _earth_ would he be _more_ naked?

I don't friggin' know! But did I _really_ want to risk it?!

I'm gonna look.

Don't you dare.

I'm doing it.

_Don't-_

I looked.

...oh thank goodness, he was more clothed now. I don't think I'd still be breathing if he hadn't been. He'd put on a tanktop and PJ bottoms and was now ruffling his fingers through his hair as he moved over to crouch next to the terrarium, checking in on Bruni. Curling his finger up and down at the little guy, he then stood to his full height and started to turn in my direction. I squeezed my eyes shut once more. There was a pause before I heard some movement, followed by the sound of the door leading out into the living room opening and then closing as quietly as possible.

A breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding all but exploded out of me as I flopped over onto my back once more. I just concentrated on the messy collage of posters up on the ceiling, waiting for my frantic pulse to settle down and desperately trying to block out any attempts made by my stupid brain to bring up images of a certain redhead down to almost nothing but his birthday suit.

After a minute, I began to hear what sounded like the muffled clang of pots and pans beyond that door he'd disappeared through, most likely coming from the kitchen. Lea was making breakfast. For himself and Saïx. For me too, I suppose, come to think of it.

That's when it clicked. Why he had undressed and changed. We were going to be seen this morning by his roommate and he hadn't wanted to look like he'd slept in his clothes. Not after what had supposedly been a, er, ahem… wild night of passion with his girlfriend. That had actually been some good thinking on Lea's part.

I laid there for a few minutes more, seeing as how there wasn't exactly any rush for me to be up yet. I took the time I needed to make sure I had fully composed myself and was ready to face this day and whatever new challenges it may hold. Or at the very least, whatever new challenges _breakfast_ may hold. Finally, I felt ready enough to sit myself up and get off the bed. I started crossing the room towards the door but only got half way before I heard it.

Voices beyond the door. Two of them. One obviously Lea. The other? Going to go with the obvious choice here and say Saïx.

I immediately froze mid step as I recalled last night. Recalled the last things I'd said and done in front of him before pulling a vanishing act into Lea's room. Oh gosh, how was I ever going to face him after _that?_ I couldn't. Plain and simple. If I went out there, Saïx would merely take one look at me and I'd just shrivel up and die of humiliation right then and there. But what else could I do? I had to leave Lea's room at _some_ point. It's not like I could just hide in here forever!

...hey, now there was an idea. I could just hide in here forever.

Damn it, Elsa, no! Stop being so ridiculous! You're going to woman up and march your little hiney straight out there! Saïx was a nice guy. He wasn't cruel. He probably wouldn't even bring it up, just pretend like it'd never happened. If he could be an adult about it and have some tact, then so could I!

My nostrils flared in determination and I gave my cheeks a couple light slaps before nodding firmly, making my way towards the door again. I reached it. My hand was going for the doorknob. My fingers were closing around it. I was about to turn it. Honestly, I really, truly was! But then I stopped again. This time however, it had nothing to do with Saïx or my anxiety.

No, this time what brought me up short was my reflection staring back at me in the long mirror hanging on the back of the door. More specifically, at what I was wearing. At my penguin-printed stockings, wrinkled now from what was most likely some tossing and turning last night. At my dress, rumpled and creased and looking quite clearly slept in.

Shoot, if Lea had taken care to not make it obvious that actual zilch had happened in his bed last night, I should make the same effort, shouldn't I? But unlike him, I didn't have half my wardrobe just scattered about the room for me to change into. Fudge, what was I even supposed to look like after spending the night with a boyfriend? I had no clue! No personal experience to draw from.

Think, think… okay, how did girls look and dress the morning after in movies and TV shows?

I pursed my lips to one side, turning around so my eyes could scan the bedroom. Then I took a step forward, shifting some of the discarded clothes on the carpet about with my foot. I bent down to pick one up, saw it was pants and shook my head, tossing it aside. Another step, some more sifting. Ah! There! My fingers closed around some fabric and I pulled it free of the others before straightening back up, taking it in both hands and spreading it out to reveal a shirt. A tee-shirt, to be more precise, one that was black and bore a faded, cracked symbol that kind of looked like a wide, fancy, angular V. Beneath it was a washed out image of some sort of red, mechanical-looking lion.

I frowned at the top.

Oh gosh, was I really going to go through with this?

...the answer was yes. Yes, I was.

Locking the bedroom door, I quickly shimmied out of my stockings and tossed them onto the bed. Next went my dress, joining the tights on the mattress. Then I pulled the shirt on over my head, doing my best to ignore his boy scent clinging to it as I shoved my arms through the sleeves and tugged the hem as far down as it would go, which turned out to be about mid-thigh. It fit surprisingly well. Maybe that shouldn't have come as such a surprise - the boy did have a tendency to wear his shirts rather tight.

...not that I noticed such things.

I turned to face my reflection once more, giving myself a quick once over. Yes, I think this would do quite nicely. But then my eyes settled on my braid in the mirror, messy and a bit tangled. _Clearly_ , that wouldn't do. I pulled it free, quickly unraveling it before combing my fingers through my hair a few times and ruffling it about a bit. _There_. That looked more appropriately bed-tousled now.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Bruni out and about in his enclosure, eyeing me from atop one of his rocks. I grinned and asked him softly, "How do I look?"

He licked his eyeball.

I snorted, muttering, "One of these days I'm going to have to figure out what that means. For now, I'll just take it as a compliment." I then looked back down at the doorknob. My hand started reaching for it, but hesitated midway. My fingers clenched into a ball. Then unclenched. I took a tiny, trembling breath against the nervous tightening in my chest.

Alright, Elsa, quick mental checklist. Boyfriend shirt? On. Legs? Bare. Hair? Down. Plan of attack? Locked and loaded. You got this. I gave myself a quick shake, hitched my chin, squared my shoulders and opened the door.

Saïx seated at the dining table was the first thing I saw when I silently padded out. His back was to me as he took a sip from a glass of water, his eyes seemingly glued to his laptop screen, free hand tapping away at the keyboard. There was a warm plate of food on the table between it and him, along with a second full dish laid out before the empty seat to his right.

Lea was in the kitchen, fixing another plate together. He didn't look my way immediately for he seemed too focused on his task, but he must have heard me open the door for he called out a chipper, "Mornin', babycakes! Hope you're hungry! I whipped us up some eggs benny and crispy home fr-"

_This_ was the exact second he turned to look at me, eyes going round.

Which, incidentally, was also the same exact second he dropped the plate he was holding.

"Shit!" he jerked back as it shattered against the linoleum, making food spatter everywhere and me wince. He squatted down and started snatching up the broken shards. However his slack-jawed gaze drifted back up towards me, his hands slowing. Then he flinched and dropped all the jagged pieces, hissing out a soft, " _Fuck_ ," as he looked back down at his now bleeding finger.

I rushed forward, passing Saïx (who hadn't even so much as looked up, just remained concentrated on his computer) and stretching my hand out towards Lea, "Here, let me help you with-"

He blanched and yelped, "Don't!" Leaping towards me, he slipped on some Hollandaise but managed to catch himself with a desperate grab for the edge of the countertop before finally reaching me, grabbing my arms and stopping me in my tracks right at the threshold of the kitchen. Then, with face full of stern intensity and utmost seriousness, he told me, "Foot slice, you will!"

I stared blankly back at him.

"Open!" he frantically tacked after a beat.

Oh. Well then, okay, when you put it that way, now it made _total_ sense.

Except for, ya know… _not_. Not one bit.

He cleared his throat and tried again, "You'll slice your foot open! So don't go in there. Don't even worry about it, 'kay? I'll take care of it." I gave a slow nod and he puffed out a relieved breath. Then he made a pained _tch_ through his teeth, releasing me to stick his still bloody fingertip into his mouth before taking it back out to shoot a tiny scowl at the cut.

Okay, so there had been a minor hiccup. But one shattered plate changed nothing. My plan of attack was still a go.

Ignoring the heat I felt creeping up the back of my neck now, my face hardened with resolve as I told him, "Good morning." Then while he was still distracted by giving his finger the evil eye, I stretched up onto my tiptoes and planted a kiss firmly to his cheek.

That was it. That was my whole plan.

Saïx better be getting a good eyeful, seeing how this bit of theater (complete with costume) was being put on purely for his benefit.

Lea's spine snapped rigid as he locked a wide-eyed stare on me. Strange. Why did he suddenly seem so flushed? Dropping my gaze to his injured finger, I stepped closer to him, taking his hand in mine as I asked, "Are you okay? Let me see."

He opened his mouth and words came out. Or at least, I think they were supposed to be words. However, they sounded more like garbled gibberish. I blinked then looked back up at him, knitting my eyebrows together. He abruptly staggered back a step, yanking his hand free of my grasp so he could cough into his fist and thump it against his chest, croaking out, "Fine." Further coughing and chest thumping, then he repeated with more strength, "Fine. I'm, uh… I'm f-fine… _Chair!_ " I jumped in surprise as he suddenly lunged for a seat, the one across the table from Saïx. Pulling it out, he said, "Please. You. Down. Er… here?"

I frowned uncertainly before sitting in it.

I mean, I _think_ that's what he was asking me to do.

As he pushed it in behind me, I said, "You're certainly very, ah… _eloquent_ this morning."

"Sorry," he chuckled weakly. "Better mouth, I'll make." He tensed, one eye ticking before grounding out slowly, "I'll. Talk. Better." Then he shoved the second plate of food that was already on the table - which I assumed had originally been for him - from its spot in front of the empty chair over towards me before he all but bolted back into the kitchen.

...why did he keep talking like Yoda?

Glancing across the table, I noticed that I didn't seem to be the only one confused. Behind his sleek glasses (that I'd just realized he was wearing now that I could fully see his face) Saïx's dull stare was flicking back and forth between me and Lea, one eyebrow quirked.

I heard Lea grunt out a low " _Ow_ " behind me, followed by the tinkle of what I assumed was more of those plate shards. Seemingly losing interest again, Saïx's eyes returned to his laptop as he called out dryly, "Might I suggest the broom and dustpan?"

There was a long pause. Then a sheepish laugh, "Right. Broom. Smart."

The sound of feet scrambling, followed by a _thud_ , then Lea suddenly appeared over next to the small door leading into the pantry. Retrieving said cleaning implements out of it, he slammed it shut once more before our eyes met and he froze. Then with a dopey, lopsided grin, he clicked his tongue and shot me a finger gun, nearly dropping the broom with the action. He fumbled to catch it, winced, then darted back around the corner, disappearing into the kitchen once more.

...he was acting so _weird_.

Sighing, I took my fork up in hand and started picking at my food, eating a few of the fried potatoes. I could hear Lea sweeping back there, intermixed with what also sounded like him throwing together another plate of food for himself. After a few more minutes, he reappeared at the pantry to shove both items back in, the broom handle popping back out to smack him in the face before he managed to slam the door shut with a tiny growl. Then he looped back around through the kitchen, coming out the other side with his fresh dish in hand and taking a seat between me and Saïx. As his plate clattered unceremoniously onto the table, I noticed his eggs Benedict looked a lot more sloppily thrown together than my own.

He looked at me. Then down at his breakfast. Then back at me, this time with another grin and an oddly hoarse, "Hi."

"...hi?" I smiled back hesitantly.

His lips parted, then clicked shut again. Then parted once more, taking in a breath like he was actually going to say something this time. But nope, false alarm. He hastily looked away and plonked his elbow on the table, propping the front of his chin against his palm, teeth gnawing on the side of his hand as his knee started jiggling up and down. His eyes kept flicking about, one second staring straight ahead, the next at me out of his peripheral. Then back and forth again. And yet again. That redness started creeping into his face once more.

I elected to fixate on my food, cutting into my poached egg and slipping a bite into my mouth. I didn't know what else to do, really. What to say. There was something… _heavy_ in the air, though I didn't know quite what exactly. Whatever it was, it made finding words difficult, even for small talk. If Saïx noticed the odd tension, he gave no outward sign as he continued to type away at the keys. Several minutes ticked by where that tip-tapping from the laptop was all that could be heard.

Suddenly I felt tiny pleasant tingles trailing through my scalp. With a start, I looked up to discover Lea watching me through half-lidded eyes as he gently tucked my pale bangs behind my ear. His fingers went on from there to tangle themselves in my hair and lightly run through the length of it, all the way down to the bottom, eliciting a little shiver from me. Then our eyes met, he blinked, gaze widening and snatching his hand back. His fingers splayed and flexed before curling into a fist that he shoved between his knees as he let out a gruff, "Sorry."

Face hot, I averted my eyes. "What for? You have no reason to be."

He was just doing his part as my rent-a-boyfriend, after all.

"Right. Sorry… about the, uh… the…" he cleared his throat, "...about the first sorry."

And once again, Saïx's typing took over in dominating the table conversation.

I put my fork down to tug at the hem of my borrowed shirt. I should have found a longer one. I hadn't taken into account the fact that it'd ride up a bit while I was sitting. Unfortunately, pulling at it seemed to be doing little good.

Making a small noise in his throat, Lea stared hard up at the ceiling, knee frantically bouncing once more.

"Did you say something?" I asked him as I retrieved my fork.

"What? No. Me? No. Mm-mm," he shook his head rapidly. Then he inhaled sharply through his nose and held it, unblinking eyes staring off into space for a few seconds before releasing the breath noisily. "Actually! Saïx! Brother! Bro! Brometheus! Bromie G-Funk! C-3PBro! My one and bronly! How'd, um… how'd work go last night?"

Saïx's fingers stilled and he glanced towards Lea, frowning at him over the rim of his glasses. "...you already asked me that while you were cooking earlier."

"Oh," he chuckled. "Right." Saïx resumed clacking away. He couldn't have gotten more than a few words written however before Lea spoke up once more, "What was the answer again?"

Twitching, Saïx came to another stop. "It went fine," he enunciated, tone flat and even.

"That's right, I remember now," Lea nodded slowly. "Heh… riveting."

Saïx went back to ignoring him.

With only a few bites left on my dish at this point, I glanced over at Lea's and realized he'd hardly touched his. "You haven't eaten much."

"Huh?" He glanced my way, crimson flooding back into his cheeks. Then down at his breakfast, both eyebrows raised as if he wasn't exactly sure what it was he was looking at now. "I…? Oh! Silly me. Forgot. Must be distracted by all this… lively discourse!" Seizing his fork, he scooped it through some potatoes, brought it up to his mouth and bit down.

Straight into the metal fork handle.

For you see, he'd picked it up the wrong way.

"Been using forks long?" Saïx deadpanned, not looking up from his laptop screen.

Lea's eyelids drooped as he flipped him the bird. And there his knee went again, jounce, jounce, jouncing away at a mile a minute as he tossed the silverware back down onto the table. "You know what? Don't think I'm all that hungry after all."

I tipped my head to one side, squinting at him. What was with him today? First with fumbling things - the plate, the broom - and just his unusual amounts of clumsiness in general. Then of course there'd been his jumbled and incoherent talking. Now the mixup with the fork _and_ he had no appetite? Not to mention he was still really red. Like, _super_ red. It was almost as if he were-

Wait… could it be…? Was he…?

Of _course!_ That _must_ be it! Oh gosh, it was so obvious now! Why hadn't I realized it sooner?

"Are you sick?" I leaned towards him, pressing the backs of my curled fingers to his forehead. He stiffened under my touch, going stock still. I frowned, "You're a little warm. You might have a fever." I trailed my knuckles down to his cheek, checking to see if the temperature was consistent throughout his face.

" _Fine!_ " he snagged my wrist and abruptly stood, knee whacking the underside of the table as he did so, causing all the plates to give a violent rattle. "I'm… I feel fine! Just…" he hastily dropped my wrist, his hand going to drag along the nape of his neck, "...it's just it's... _way_ too hot in this place! Yeah! I'm gonna go open up a window, get some fresh air in here!" He practically blurred into the kitchen, throwing the one just over the sink wide open with a loud _bang_ before rushing back into his seat, nearly toppling it and him over with his momentum.

"Ah, much better, don'tcha think?" he beamed. Then without waiting for an answer, he started shoveling food into his mouth like a man starved - thankfully with the correct end of the fork this time. He only stopped when he realized we were both staring at him. He swallowed his current mouthful and gave a small laugh, "Er… turns out there was a bit of a rumbly in my tumbly after all?"

...if this was him trying to convince us he wasn't suffering from some sort of bug, he was failing. Miserably.

With a drawn-out sigh through his nose, Saïx slowly began to rise from his own chair. As he picked up his own plate, I was a little surprised to see he had already finished every last morsel on it. I hadn't noticed him eating at all. I hadn't even thought his fingers had ever left his keyboard this whole time.

As he walked past us towards the kitchen, I finished the last bite on my plate before standing as well. Lea glanced my way out of the corner of his eye while chewing, so I took the opportunity to smile softly at him and place my hand on his shoulder. The muscle twitch beneath my fingertips and his jaw stilled as I told him quietly, "Thank you. It was delicious."

Then I took my plate and turned to follow Saïx into the kitchen. As I walked, I could feel this tiny itch in the center of my back right between my shoulderblades. I think Lea's gaze was still on me. Shrugging it off, I came to a stop next to Saïx as he ran the faucet over his dish and squirted some soap into a sponge. I got in line to wash my own plate, setting it down on the countertop beside the sink while I waited.

Saïx gave me a quick look and we exchanged smiles. The tiny, awkward smiles of two antisocial shut-ins. Oddly enough, I felt comfortable in our mutual introversion. I hadn't even thought once about the way I'd embarrassed myself last night in front of him. Though, I guess that _could_ just be because I'd been too distracted by Lea's weirdness all morning. Regardless, Saïx and I then settled into a companionable silence as he set to work.

And still that itch along my spine remained.

A breeze drifted in through the window over the sink, brushing along my skin and toying with strands of my hair. I gave a low hum at how nice it felt and I reached back to gather my locks together, sweeping them forward over one shoulder where I idly began to finger-comb them.

The scraping of Lea's chair along the floor was the only warning I had, one that I paid little mind to.

The next I knew, his arms were slipping around my waist to hug me from behind and his lips were pressing a soft, tender kiss to the side of my neck. Shockwaves of icy heat cascaded out from that one small point to ripple throughout the rest of my body.

I was forgetting to do something. I think it was important. Possibly even life sustaining and-

Ah. Breathing. _That_ was it.

Lea lingered for a few seconds more, his breath warming the now hypersensitive skin there and I had to suppress a small quiver. The tip of his nose brushed along my jawline as he then brought his lips up to my ear, whispering silkily, "For appearances." Aka, for Saïx, standing not two feet away from us. Lea planted one more swift peck to my temple before withdrawing his arms and pulling away.

Oh gosh, he'd been right. It _was_ really so very hot in here, wasn't it? Sweltering, in fact. Were there more windows we could open? I think I was on the verge of melting here.

I slowly brought a hand up to cover the spot where it still tingled from his lips, casting a brief glance back over my shoulder. Lea had settled himself against the counter on the opposite side of the kitchen, his fingers drumming along its edge, his head bowed and eyes darting about, landing on anything and everything but me. I looked forward once more, biting down into my lower lip and rubbing the back of my leg with my other foot. The skin under my palm felt like it was searing and I could swear he'd left a scorch mark there. I didn't know what to do with this. How to react. I mean, it was okay… right? I _had_ given him permission after all to kiss any bare skin with the only thing off limits being directly on the mouth. He'd just never kissed… _there_ before. No one had. I hadn't expected it to be so, er… _intimate_.

With a start, I realized Saïx was studying me, expression unreadable. To be fair, that's how his face usually was. Still, I suddenly felt self-conscious and I had to resist the urge to fidget under his scrutiny. He looked away, sticking his dish on the drying rack and reaching for mine, muttering, "I'll take care of it."

I frowned, "But-"

"Wouldn't want another broken plate," he said simply as he put it under the flow of steaming water. I furrowed my brow at the statement and he closed his eyes. "You look like you might be catching the same illness Lea has."

Blast it all, I needed to figure out how to get this whole stupid blushing issue of mine under control! It used to not be such a problem. I never used to blush at all, not until Lea waltzed into my life.

The big, dumb, beautiful jerk.

"...thank you," I murmured, referring to my dish with a nod, unable to come up with anything better to say. Perhaps now would just be a good time to escape. I turned to go only to end up stumbling back into the counter, biting back a yelp.

For I hadn't expected Lea to suddenly be standing right _there_ , smack dab in front of me all super close now. His hand was raised, frozen midway to my face. He looked guilty, like a kid who'd been caught reaching into the cookie jar. His wide eyes darted from me to his hand and back again. Then he muttered under his breath, "Welp. This is happening."

I cocked an eyebrow. "Wha-?"

That one syllable was all I got out before he'd suddenly hoisted me up and slung me over his shoulder like a sack of flour. My fingers scrabbled and clutched at the back of his tanktop, trying to find purchase so I could prop myself up.

Just what the _heck_ was he doing _now?!_

He erupted into booming laughter and slapped Saïx on the shoulder. "Well, my dude, got another hour to kill before my class starts, so I think the lil lady and I are gonna head back to my room for round two!" My head shot up, face roasting. _Excuse me?_ "Or is it round eight? Round nine? Bah, I've lost track since last night!" Well _that_ was certainly a bold claim there, stud. "That's right, a lil more of the ol' forbidden polka, if ya know what I mean." Even that _oven mitt_ over there knew what you meant. Seriously, you can stop now. "Boinking! That's what I mean!" And yet, he was still going. "Ya know, really rattle the ol' headboard! Except, ah, heh… no headboard. But still-" I kneed him in the gut, forcing a grunt out of him. I think he got the hint. "Right! Anyway! I know you're heading to bed now, so we'll try to keep the roughhousing to a minimum! No promises though! Sleep tight, man!"

Thankfully, _mercifully_ , he spun us around then so he could carry me off to his room. That brought me face-to-face with Saïx as Lea jogged off. The man's expression was as indecipherable as ever as he watched us go, but if I had to take a guess, I'd say he looked just about as bewildered as I felt. That was the last thing I saw before Lea crossed the threshold and kicked his door shut behind him.

My back was suddenly hitting the mattress as he dropped me into his bed. I sat up quickly, bracing myself on one hand as I tucked my legs in beside me and yanked down the hem of my shirt. Then I looked up at Lea and my whole body tensed.

He was standing at the foot of the bed, so very still and just… _staring_ at me. His face was a mask, giving nothing away. But his eyes… now _those_ were a different story. They were so intense, so dark and… swirling with something I couldn't quite put a name to. It was sucking all the oxygen out of the room. It made my fingers unconsciously grip at the comforter more tightly. Made my pulse race and the spot on my neck where his lips had been prickle slightly.

Neither of us moved or spoke for several seconds. Several… very _long_ seconds. When I did finally manage to find my voice, it was small and uncertain as I asked, "...Lea?"

He blinked at the sound of his name. Once, twice, then slowly gave his head a small shake, like he was coming out of some sort of trance. He grimaced, bringing one hand up to cover his face but not before I spotted some of that redness creeping back into it. He groaned, dragging his palm down to just over his mouth instead, eyes narrowed on the floor as he grumbled, "Sorry, I'm… I was just… ah, nevermind."

He turned away, dragging his feet towards the bathroom door and stretching one arm over his head as he went. "I'm gonna hop in the shower. I take 'em long, so you should have more than enough time to change, but I'll knock before coming back in justa be on the safe side. Saïx's probably back in his own room already, so you can wait out there if ya want. Or in here. Wherever. Then I can drop ya off any place you want on my way to class, 'kay?"

It took him glancing back my way from beyond the door frame for me to realize he was actually waiting for some sort of reply. "...okay," was the best I could come up with, still in the same tone I'd said his name. He gave a tired-looking smile and a small nod before closing the door. It wasn't until I heard the shower running that all that tension coiling inside of me at last dispersed and my whole body slumped.

Something strange had just happened. I didn't know what. All I knew was I felt relief now that it was over. But also… oddly enough, a bit… disappointed?

Shaking the feeling away, I scooched myself off the bed and quickly changed back into my own clothes, leaving his shirt on the mattress. Then I slipped into my ankle boots, zipping them up before pulling my hair back into a loose ponytail. Not forgetting the Twilight University course catalog, I grabbed it off the nightstand, my fingers fiddling with one of its corners as I glanced about the room.

It was actually feeling a bit claustrophobic in here, so maybe waiting out in the living room would be for the best. Or better yet, out on the sidewalk where I could get some fresh air. Yeah, that sounded like just what I needed right now. Giving Bruni a tiny wave with one finger, I moved to the door and quietly opened it a crack to peek out.

I could make out the dining table, where the only thing left on it was Lea's half eaten breakfast - Saïx had probably felt zero obligation to clean up after his brother. His laptop was gone so it looked like he had indeed retreated to his own bedroom. I quietly slipped out, softly shutting the door behind me before leaning back against it, closing my eyes and heaving a low sigh through my nose.

"You two aren't really dating."

Those five little words made me jolt and nearly topple over, but I steadied myself against the door. My breathing shallow, I glanced to the left to discover Saïx standing in his own doorway, arms crossed and shoulder propped against the frame. His eyes were pinning me with a flat look, his lips settled into an almost imperceptible frown.

I paled, both eyebrows shooting up my forehead as I stammered, "I… We… That is… How did you-"

"Don't worry," he harrumphed, turning his head to one side. "Your secret is safe with my indifference."

...well that was good

At least, I _think_ it was.

I tucked in my bottom lip, eyes shifting about for a few seconds. "...what... gave it away?"

"I wish we were real," he recited Lea's words blandly, the same ones that had been haunting me since last night. So Saïx _had_ overheard that after all. "There were other things after that. Things I might have overlooked otherwise despite the fact that Lea can be painfully transparent sometimes."

My head tilted to the left. "What do you mean?"

He held my gaze for a long moment. Then his eyes closed and he gave a soft, almost amused _hmph_. "That would be telling. Regardless, it'd probably be for the best if you kept him away from alcohol for the remainder of your little charade, however long that may be." He turned his back to me, reaching for his door but then stopped. "And please… try to be careful with my brother. I'd rather not see him get hurt."

"...hurt?" I blinked. "What-"

But he simply closed his door, leaving me to wonder at his cryptic words.

* * *

"Actually, could you please drop me off at the mall instead?"

Lea glanced my way, tipping his head forward so he could look at me over his aviators. Then he smirked, pushing the sunglasses back up with his middle finger as his eyes returned to the road and he flicked off his turn signal. "Good for you," he said as we sped past my apartment complex.

I shrugged, twisting a tendril of my ponytail between my fingers. "I'm just going to talk to them. It's no big deal."

"Sure that's all it is," he nodded solemnly, still grinning. He was back to his usual self again. Not a trace left of that weirdness from earlier this morning. Guess that shower he took really did the trick. "You're gonna love Sally and Jack. They're quite the characters… bit oddball, but some of the nicest, friendliest people you'll ever meet. And I'm calling it now: they're gonna adore you. I wouldn't be surprised if they offered you the lead in their musical after only talking to ya for five minutes."

Snorting, I rolled my eyes, "That's not how it works."

"You're right. I'm selling you short." Out popped that dimpled of his, "Make that three minutes."

"Shush," I shoved his shoulder and he chuckled as he turned the car into the Dusk Town Center parking lot.

"Alright, alright, I'll shush up about it," he mimed zipping his lips. "You know where Halloween Town is in there, right? Remember how to get to Blitzball Sports from the food court? It's not too far past that, just keep an eye out for the swirling dark vortex of spook and nightmare, ya can't miss it."

"Sounds like I'm in for a treat," I gave a small smile.

"Something like that," he snerked as he pulled up to the curb in front of the mall entrance, the flow of shoppers coming and going around us thick at the moment. Lea reached across me to open my car door and I was mildly irked at the tiny flutter my heart gave in response to his sudden nearness. He didn't pull back right away, instead raising his sunglasses to sit atop his hair as he looked over at me, his eyes crinkling. Then his hand cupped the back of my head, pulling me close so he could plant a light kiss to my forehead. "Have fun, meu chuchuzinho," he beamed, his fingers mussing up my bangs.

I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Portuguese," he chirped, answering my unvoiced question, "for my lil squash!"

Not even gracing _that_ with a reply, I just heaved a sigh, unbuckled my seatbelt, smoothed my hair and got out of the car.

He called out after me, "We'll say that one's a maybe! And oh! Almost forgot. If you run into Vanibutt at Halloween Town, don't take anything that lil punkass says too seriously. He's like that 'round all girls. My guess? His mom didn't give him enough hugs as a kid. Just call him Beetlejuice, got it? He likes it."

My eyelids drooped. "Somehow I highly doubt that," I said, closing the car door before he could make any further wisecracks.

He just winked and made heart hands at me through the window before driving away. I shook my head as I watched him go, face warming as my fingertips brushed over my forehead at the same spot where his lips had just been.

I hadn't mentioned anything to him about what Saïx had said to me. About the fact that he'd figured out our little secret. Somehow, I'd got the impression from Saïx that our little talk was supposed to stay just between us. I guess it really wouldn't have made a difference if Lea knew one way or another. Still, it felt weird not telling him. Maybe Saïx would tell Lea himself in his own time. Puffing out a breath, I waited until I could no longer see his car before I turned and passed through those double doors leading into the food court.

It didn't take me long to find my way back to Blitzball Sports. Business was slow in there at the moment and I could see inside where two employees were bouncing a ball back and forth between them. They honestly looked like a couple of beach bums, the shorter one with shaggy, sandy hair and the other with a 'do done up into a large, orange coif. Next door at the Glass Slipper, I could see the shoe clerk there - a blonde girl in her teens - being run ragged by a particularly nasty looking customer and her two bratty daughters. Ah, the joys and glamor of customer service. Silently sending my sympathy to the poor salesperson, I pushed onward.

Hm, let's see here… Hair, Here, Everywhere? No, that was a hair and beauty salon. Looking past the _Flower Gleam And Glow_ poster on the window boasting a new anti-aging cream, I spotted one of the stylists - an energetic young woman whose employment in a barber shop seemed rather ironic. Her long flaxen hair down to her ankles had probably never known the firm snip of a pair of scissors.

Next to that, we had… what did that old, broken, retro sign even say? Space Paranoids? Yeesh, it was certainly gaudy with all those light-up neon tubes decorating its walls, wasn't it? Oh gosh, I think it was a laser tag place. I didn't even know those still existed nowadays.

Then there was the little kiosk in the middle of the walkway, dubbed The Key Graveyard. Some sort of key copy booth, I think. I edged my way around it, giving it a wide berth. The bald, old man working it had creepy eyes that gave me the willies.

Oh, now there was a store name I recognized: The Crayon Box. And what luck, Naminé was even behind the counter there at the moment. She caught my eye with a sweet smile and a wave. I returned it before moving on, looking to my left. Across the way from the little art supply store was…

Ah-ha! Halloween Town! Lea's words hadn't done it justice. The whole store front was decorated with gothic tombstones, synthetic yet sinister jack-o-lanterns, and eerie silhouette cutouts of shadow faces. The doorway was even fashioned with a large wrought iron gate to give one the impression of walking into a decrepit old cemetery.

I hesitated at the entrance, gnawing on my lower lip. It wasn't the ghoulish ambiance that was giving me pause however. Instead it was a familiar, chilling doubt creeping its way up inside my chest.

What was I even doing here? Did I really think I could _talk?_ To _strangers?_ About _singing?_ In a _musical_ , no less? A musical, for crying out loud! Did I not know myself but at all? What was I thinking? If I was struggling to even go inside right now to merely introduce myself to a couple new people, what made me think I could ever possibly stand on a stage to perform in front of a whole auditorium?

...then again… musicals were a little different, weren't they? Musicals had scripts. Scripts made things so much easier. Scripts made it so you knew exactly what to expect. No surprises, no uncertainty, all you had to do was stick to the script. Scripts were comfortable. Life would be so much simpler if it were like a musical, one where I had a script to follow. Musicals were just so… nice. Full of songs and dancing. You'd forget the audience was even there and all you were left with was pure joy. I remembered how they made me feel as a child. Like I finally had somewhere I truly belonged. Being a part of them was the last time I remembered feeling like I had been sincerely, genuinely happy. I… think I might like it… if maybe I could recapture some of that old feeling. Even just a little bit of it.

My hands clenched at my sides and my nostrils flared.

I could do this. I could walk inside, meet these individuals and ask some questions. Just a few measly questions. It didn't even have to go beyond that. I could change my mind at any time if I wanted to. This was nothing. Just one small step, that's all.

With a reassuring nod to myself, I marched inside.

The place looked like the Dark Prince Dracula himself had exploded in here. Just the whole doom and gloom aesthetic covering every inch from floor to ceiling. The store practically overflowed with its goth merch, making the walkways cramped as I tried to navigate through it all, looking for a Jack, a Sally, or someone who could point me to either of them. Unfortunately, I wasn't having any luck beyond running into a handful of shoppers perusing the goods. They gave me blank stares as I passed them. I must have stuck out like a sore thumb here.

Perhaps I was going about this all wrong. Maybe instead of me looking for an employee, I should just stop and let an employee find me. That did tend to be a part of the whole working retail shtick, after all.

As I came to a halt and waited for someone to (hopefully) ask me if I needed help finding anything, I glanced around. I had parked myself in front of one of the stores more, shall we say... _unique_ items for sale. A very large, very regal, very frightful looking high-backed prop chair embellished in plastic skeletons and glowing jack-o-lanterns. I squinted at the little plaque next to it on the black wall, declaring it to be the throne of the Pumpkin King. Jeez, it was expensive too. Who would even pay that much for such a monstrosity?

"You lost, little girl?"

I gasped, jumping at the sudden voice. Wait… I recognized that voice. Had heard it not too long ago. But had it really come from where it sounded like it had? Wrinkling my brow, I looked up.

There, sitting atop the high backrest of the throne with an elbow propped on one knee and chin in his palm, was none other than Vanitas. He smirked down at me from his perch, gold eyes flickering bright in this otherwise dark place. There was something moving, cozying itself up around his shoulders… some sort of critter, I suspected, but it was hard to tell from down here.

Well, I'd been hoping someone who worked here would find me. I guess this was the very definition of be careful what you wish for because you might just get it.

I took a step backwards, fidgeting with my fingers. "Um… Excuse me, but could you help me find-"

"Sorry," he grumbled in a tone that was anything but apologetic as he hopped down to land in front of me, pointing a finger at his now apathetic expression, "but does this look like the face of someone who gives two fucks what you want?"

I grimaced, moving another step back. His gaze was making me anxious and I was unable to hold it, instead opting to shift my eyes over to the creature on his shoulder. Now that it was closer, I could see it was a hairless sphynx cat, black with red eyes. Did its collar say… Flood? What a strange thing to name a pet. I must not have been reading it right. Licking my dry lips, I muttered, "Well, I… suppose I'll just go find someone else th-"

"What was your name again?" Vanitas interrupted me, eyes narrowing as he got in my face now. It seemed he had absolutely zero awareness of personal boundaries. He started to slowly circle me, eyeing me up and down, "...Emma? Ilsa?"

" _Elsa_ ," I corrected with a tiny scowl, back stiff as I felt a chill creep up it while he passed behind me. This guy was getting on my nerves. Before I could stop myself, I snapped, "And yours was what? Beetlejuice?"

...can't believe you actually went there, mouth. That was childish. Lea was a bad influence.

"Cute. Bet your boyfriend told you to say that," he snerked, finishing his tiny lap around me and coming to a stop, bringing us face-to-face once more. His cat was making a low growling noise as it watched me and Vanitas brought up his fingers to scratch behind one of its large, jagged ears. "Still, it took balls to _actually_ say it. Looks like you got some bite beneath your chilly exterior, eh Frosty?"

My scowl deepened and I backed up another step, my spine coming into contact with the end of a wide shelf. I hoped he couldn't hear the small tremor in my voice as I shot back, "And looks like you have a bad memory beneath _your_ boorish exterior. I just told you what my name is and it _isn't_ Frosty."

Elsa, Queen of the Death Wish.

Seriously, why was I antagonizing this guy? This was a bad idea. I knew that and yet I couldn't seem to help myself. He was making me antsy. My heartbeat hammered and my hands were clammy. I felt a bit like a cornered animal, lashing out in a futile attempt to keep a larger predator at bay.

His lips curled wolfishly. At least he seemed to find me amusing. Although, I wasn't quite sure if that was really a good thing. "You know, I'm starting to see why Red has his panties all in a twist over you." His cat leapt down to the floor and started weaving itself between my ankles. Doing my best not to trip over it, I tried to sidestep so I could regain some distance and possibly even altogether escape but Vanitas's hand shot out, palm slamming against the shelf behind me, his arm now blocking my path.

"Yeah," he continued, rubbing a curled finger to his chin as his unsettling grin grew toothier, "you got sorta this whole pure, innocent Catholic schoolgirl vibe going on that really makes a guy want to corrupt the fuck outta you. Tell ya what, Frosty," he leaned in closer and my jaw clenched as he clacked his silver tongue stud against his teeth, "if you ever get bored of that loser, gimme a call. I'll show you a real good t-"

"Bad Vani!" Suddenly the boy was getting spritzed in the side of the face with some kind of liquid and he jerked back, stumbling away from me. A young woman stepped forward, glowering at him as she sprayed him a couple more times with the water bottle she was holding. "Stop scaring the customers!"

"God fucking damnit, woman!" he snarled back, angrily scrubbing his sleeve along his damp cheek. "You can't do that to me! I am darkness! I am fear! I am-"

Eyelids drooping, she squirted his face with more water. He spat out a long string of curse words before flipping her off and running away, his cat hissing and scampering after him.

Sighing and shaking her head, she then turned to me with a small smile, "Sorry about him. We keep him around because he's really good with the regulars, but he does seem to take perverse pleasure in spooking any newcomers, or 'fresh meat,'" her fingers bounced in air quotes, "as he likes to call them. He shouldn't bother you again however. In any case, I'm Sally, how can I help you?"

Ah, so _this_ was Sally. Thank goodness she didn't seem anything like her coworker. She was pretty, if somewhat distressingly pale. And that was coming from _me_ , so that was saying something. Why, standing next to her, I practically looked tan. Her long red hair came down to her waist and peeking out from the neckline of her colorful, eccentric patchwork dress was a neck tattoo that looked like a line of crisscross stitches wrapping all the way around.

"Oh, er… hello…" my hands folded over one another against my stomach. Then fell awkwardly to my sides. Then, after some hesitation, I stretched one out for a handshake, "My name is Elsa. I…" my mind drew a total blank and my anxiety spiked. Grasping at straws, I blurted out the first thing I could remember, "Lea sent me."

Wow, that sounded so cloak-and-dagger.

Sally accepted my hand, her smile growing warmer. "Oh, so _you're_ the one he's been talking our ears off about. Pleasure to make your acquaintance." She twisted around slightly, calling back over her shoulder, "Jack? Elsa's here. You remember… Lea's girlfriend?"

A few seconds later a man emerged from between the racks of black leather apparel and spiked accessories. Jeez, he was tall. At _least_ as tall as Lea if not having him beat by a couple inches. The big difference here however was Lea at least had some meat on his bones, where as this guy was more just skin and bones. A walking stick. I'd give him this however, he was quite the dapper dresser in his black suit with a bit of goth flair to it. His short, poofy hair was a stark white and he struck me with a huge, face-splitting grin that would have given Sora a run for his munny.

"Ah yes! The one interested in trying out for our new production! Nice to meet you, nice to meet you!" He grabbed my hand with both of his, giving it a couple shakes that rocked my whole body. "Wow, just look at you! The hair, those eyes, that complexion! You would make an absolutely stunning Glinda!"

Placing gentle fingers on his arm, Sally said, "Slow down, Jack. Remember what Lea said?"

"Right! Sorry, I have a bad habit of getting ahead of myself in my enthusiasm," he laughed, long thin fingers scratching at his cheek. "You've been out of the musical game for a while now, isn't that right?"

Sweeping my ponytail forward to run my hands down it, I nodded. "Yes… yes, it's been a few years. Not since I was a child, in fact, so I'm a bit rusty." My face pinched and I looked down, "Well... more like a _lot_ rusty."

"That's okay!" he brushed off, his hand batting the air. "We welcome everyone, especially beginners! We just love introducing people to the wonderful world of theater! To the magic! The _drama!_ " he boomed the last word, curling his fingers skyward before him theatrically.

"Tone it back a bit, dear," Sally affectionately stroked his cheek before turning her gaze back on me. "Jack's an actor, if you couldn't tell, though he does dabble in directing from time to time too. I'm more behind the scenes. I like to help with the costuming and techie work."

My head tipped to one side, recalling Jack had said something about Glinda. "Is your upcoming show going to be _The Wizard of Oz_?"

" _Wicked_ , actually," he corrected before bringing his hands together with a clap. "And in fact, we're holding auditions tomorrow starting at 5 PM over at the Sunset Hill Auditorium! You should swing by and try out. It'd be good to get some new blood in there!"

"What?" I blinked, before quickly shaking my head and holding up a hand with a feeble chuckle, "Oh no. No, I don't think so. I was just curious to learn more about your group, but I don't think I'm ready for… well, for anything like _that_."

"Still, you should absolutely stop in and check us out. You can just observe if you want. May I borrow your phone?" Sally asked. I chewed my bottom lip before digging it out and letting her take it from me. She tapped in something real quick then handed it back. "There. You have the address now and you're welcome to come by, even if it's just to hang out. We're a real open and friendly lot. Just a bunch of overgrown theater kids, really."

"Thanks," I murmured, staring down at the location she'd entered into my phone for a second before pocketing it once more. Then I pursed my lips to one side, averting my gaze to appear more interested than I actually was in the vampire fangs hanging in the display to my right. "...so what exactly would one need to do to prepare for an audition? Just for curiosity's sake," I tacked on the last part quickly, faintly blushing.

It was just an innocent question. Not like I was actually going to do it.

Sally grinned softly. "For singing parts in musicals, we require those trying out to perform two songs. One from the show itself, the other can be anything of the auditionee's choosing. I entered my number into your phone as well in case you had any further questions, so just shoot me a message and I can text back the selection from _Wicked_ that you'll have to pick from. For that, you just have to bring your voice. For your personal preference song however, you'll need to be ready with some sheet music for our pianist to play from."

Seemed simple enough.

…not that I was going to do it, of course. Certainly not. Nope.

"Sally, you almost forgot the most important part," Jack tsked teasingly before ducking his head down to my level and striking up a finger. "You must also be prepared… to have fun!" he declared happily, throwing up a pair of jazz hands.

A crease formed between my eyebrows. "I'll… try to remember that. Thanks." I felt an upward tug at one corner of my lips despite myself.

I thanked them for their time and we said our goodbyes. Luckily, I had no further run-ins with the local wildlife (aka Vanitas) on my way out. As I trekked my way homeward, I felt a bit of a pleasant electricity buzzing in my chest. I think I may have actually been a smidge excited. Of course, it was only over the idea of going and watching _other_ people audition tomorrow. Of living vicariously through them. _I_ surely wasn't going to try out myself. Who me? No, don't be silly, definitely not. And I _certainly_ wasn't currently dusting off my mental playlist of the soundtrack for _Wicked_ , nor already sorting through a few potential songs I might sing as my free choice. No, absolutely not.

Those were the _furthest_ things from my mind.

The.

Absolute.

_Furthest_.

* * *

_**Author's Note:** Lea-dot-exe _ _has encountered a critical error and has crashed xD Gosh it's simply staggering the amount of mental acrobatics Elsa goes through to just simply NOT GET what has him so tongue-tied and flustered. Being really bad at reading social cues has basically become her super power at this point. Well, that and her super human ability to babble under extreme pressure. Also, more plot creeping back in as Elsa potentially begins to pursue the whole community theater angle! I was just happy I got an excuse to write Jack and Sally into this, they're a couple of my faves! Also happy I got an excuse to have someone spritz Vanitas in his punkass edgelord face with a water bottle haha! Fun Fact: These musical tryouts are based on how musical auditions used to be held at my high school. I'm not sure if any other theaters (professional, community, or otherwise) hold tryouts like that, but from what the internet tells me, every theater is different, especially when it comes to community theater, so I figured sure, why not, let's just go with what I know!_

_Small PSA, guys - I just made the recent discovery a few days ago that there are OTHER people on this website writing Axelsa fanfiction! I was so excited, you have no IDEA! :3 And there's some seriously GOOD ones out there too, so if you're like me and need more content to feed your obsession for this rare pair, just search the Axel/Elsa tag!_

_Thank you so much for reading, especially to those of you who have left a kudos and shared with me your thoughts and feelings on this story so far! Remember, feedback is not only welcome, but highly encouraged and super appreciated!_


	22. Chapter 22

"Alright, Elsa, you can do this! You're going to get up on that stage and you're going to wow them!"

So all that stuff about me not trying out? Total bald-faced lie. Kudos to any of you who saw right through it. Since, you know… I'm _so_ good at the whole deception thing.

"...alright fine, maybe not _wow_ them, per se… but you can do _okay_ at least, right?"

This was all just for fun, after all. It's not like it was anything important, it's not like it _really_ mattered. It was nothing, just a silly childhood dream. Just one moment, one _blip_ in time that would be over before I knew it. No big deal.

"...passable? Surely, you can at _least_ give me passable!"

Now if only I could convince my reflection of that.

Which, judging by the flat look she was giving me from the mirror on my vanity, was not going too hot.

"Ugh!" I huffed, tossing up my hands and turning away to pace my bedroom floor. "Just try not to fall flat on your face and I'll be happy. Can you just do that much for me? _Please?_ " I snapped, facing my reflection once more.

She scrunched up her nose and gave me a noncommittal shrug.

My shoulders slumped and I hung my head, bracing my hands atop the vanity table. "Look, you've been practicing nonstop since yesterday. And yes, I know what basically amounts to cramming sing-alongs for almost twenty-four hours straight isn't going to make up for the lack of any sort of professional training. Or the absence of any _real_ experience. Or the fact that besides karaoke that one night, you pretty much haven't sung in almost a decade except for maybe a personal concert in the shower once in the blue moon. I know you're going into this blind and have no idea what you're doing and others there will be _way_ better prepared than you and-" I frowned, narrowing my eyes, "...and I had a point. Fudge, what was it again?"

My reflection looked remarkably unmoved by my rallying little speech just now.

"Ah!" I snapped my fingers, face brightening before jabbing my index up against the mirror. "The _point_ was that none of that matters! What matters is you've done the best you could do in the time you had! So worrying about it any further is nothing more than a useless waste of time and energy! So just go on out there, have a good time and… and give it your all!" My hands closed into fists and they made weak, halfhearted thrusts into the air over my head as I gave a tiny, "Woo!"

She just drooped her eyelids at me.

I plopped down hard into my chair with a small growl. "I _know_ I suck at pep talks. Yeesh, you don't have to be so negative!"

I don't know why I even bothered. Reflection Me was always such a downer.

Sighing, I propped my chin in my palm while I brought my other hand up to fiddle with the flower poking out of a miniature vase sitting on my vanity. It was the winter honeysuckle Lea had given me, dried out now because I'd wanted it to last. I toyed with its delicate petals, my fingers gentle so as not to break them. Somehow merely touching it seemed to sooth my frayed nerves and lighten my spirits, even if only just a little bit.

My phone buzzed and I checked it to see that it was a text from Lea telling me he'd arrived and was on his way up. I exhaled slowly. Okay, I couldn't procrastinate any longer. It was now or never. I stood up and made my way over to my bed, on top of which laid the sheet music I'd managed to hunt down after some internet searching. Gathering it up with care so as not to wrinkle any of the pages, I then headed towards my bedroom door.

"Who's a pretty, pretty princess? Daddy is! Isn't that right, jelly-belly-welly-bean?"

The dulcet tone of Rayne cooing down at her own tummy was the first sound to greet me when I walked out into the living room. I blinked, taking in the scene before me as Rayne returned her attention to the, er… "pretty, pretty princess." That is to say, her husband, whose lips were set into a grim line while his left eye gave a little tick. She had him seated in one of the kitchen chairs as she stood behind him, putting the finishing touches on the long braid she'd fashioned his hair into. It was complete with teeny butterfly barrettes, a colorful assortment of flowers weaved throughout, and a giant, frilly bow at the end holding it all together.

More practice for styling her future daughter's hair.

I'd know, since normally _I'd_ be the one sitting in that chair instead of Riku.

Thankfully, it was now _his_ turn to suffer hair bedazzling hell.

"Not one word, Fryse," he grumbled. "Not a single, solitary word."

I held the sheet music up to my mouth, concealing a tiny grin behind it. Then carefully schooling my features, I told him, "I was only going to comment on how masculine and rugged you look this evening."

"Damn straight," he harrumphed, crossing his arms and slouching further into his seat.

"I have the bestest, sweetest, _manliest_ hubby in the whole wide world," Rayne declared happily, pulling his head back so she could plant an upside down smooch to his lips. This seemed to mollify him somewhat. Giggling, she then glanced my way. "You all ready for your big debut, pumpkin?"

Rubbing one elbow, I shrugged, "...as ready as I'm going to be, I suppose."

Her lips twisted sourly as she clipped another glitzy butterfly into his hair. "Still wish I was able to go and give you moral support."

"No no, it's fine," I said hastily with a shake of my head and a small, reassuring smile. "Lea's driving me so it's not like I'm stranded in need of a ride or anything. Plus you have your baby appointment to get to and I wouldn't want to make you reschedule for some silly little thing like this. Really, just don't worry about it."

"Besides," Riku tacked on, "friends and family of those trying out aren't usually allowed in to watch the auditions anyway."

Rayne's cheeks gave a little puff of annoyance. "I'd like to see them try and stop me if I showed up."

There was a knock at the door just then. Knowing it was Lea, I moved to open it and found him standing there, one shoulder propped against the doorframe. He grinned down at me, "Hey, El! Ready to go? I-" he stopped as he looked past me, blinking a couple times. Then the curl to his lips grew a touch evil, "Yo, Raindrop, who's your new gal pal? She's hella cute!"

"Cram it before I curb stomp your ass," Riku ground out through his teeth.

"Threaten me with a good time, mamacita," he purred back at him, waggling his eyebrows.

Riku sneered with a _tch_ , grumbling under this breath, "Better pray we don't meet in a dark alley, clown, because I will _crush_ you."

"Oof, I usually like a girl to ask me to dinner first, but I might be willing to make an exception just this once if ya keep sweet talking me like that, gorgeous," Lea winked. As Riku shot up to his feet with a black look, I ran out the door and grabbed Lea's arm. "Oops, looks like duty calls. We'll hafta continue this later, hot stuff. Call me!" he blew Riku a kiss with a snigger as I dragged him away, slamming the door shut behind me.

I started jogging down the steps, listening to Lea's footfall as he followed close behind. Shaking my head with a soft scoff, I said, "Can't believe Mr Guyliner here is making fun of a dude with flowers in his hair."

"Was only doing it cuz I knew how butthurt he'd get over it," he snerked as he appeared at my side. "Now me personally? Don't have a problem with it. I'd rock a thousand posies in my majestic mane and look damn fine doing it too."

I glanced over at him, one corner of my lips tugging up. "I might have to hold you to that."

He flung himself onto the handrail and slid down past me in a blur. Converse hitting the landing below, Lea spun around to block my way just as I caught up to him, smirking as he brought himself nose-to-nose with me. "Only if _you're_ the one weaving all them pretty lil blossoms into my hair."

My heart spasmed.

Down, girl.

After all, it was only the empty teasing he always did.

I turned my head a little, shooting him some side-eye. "...do I get to choose the flowers?"

"I don't see why not."

"Good." I ducked under his arm to slip past him and make my way towards the next flight of stairs, "Leadwort it is then."

"Well now, _that_ sounds ominous." I could hear the frown in his voice. "Should I be worried?"

I shot him a sly grin over my shoulder. "Depends. Very pretty. Very, _very_ itchy. Hope you're ready to suffer for fashion."

"For you?" he beamed, hopping down the steps two at a time now to gain on me once more. "Totally worth it."

I merely rolled my eyes, electing not to dignify his comment with a response.

Soon enough we'd climbed into his car and were hitting the road. Sunset Hill Auditorium wasn't really all that far, but still a bit further than I'd rather walk. Thankfully Lea had been free and only too happy to give me a lift over, seeing as how Riku and Rayne had a prior commitment on the other end of town. Speaking of, they'd probably left immediately right after us and I idly wondered if Riku was planning on showing up at the doctor's with his hairdo still all fab like that. The image brought a little smile to my face.

It quickly faded however as I stared down at the sheet music sitting in my lap. My fingers twisted at my braid as I took in a shaky breath and blew it out slowly. Now that I'd fallen quiet, I could feel that nervous energy creeping its way back into my chest. It was actually kind of sort of a good nervous. I was a bit loathe to admit it, but a small part of me was looking forward to this.

That said, it didn't mean I wasn't also absolutely friggin' _terrified_.

I was actually a little relieved that friends and family weren't normally allowed into the auditions. The offer of moral support was appreciated, but ultimately I think I would have been more anxious if Riku and Rayne _had_ been able to come and watch. Anna too, for that matter. I know my sister would have dropped everything to be here in a heartbeat, which is why I hadn't even mentioned anything about this to her. Making a fool of myself in front of strangers? Mortifying, but I'd survive - at least if I royally screwed up, I'd never have to see any of them again and could just pretend the whole big mess had never happened. Not so if people I _actually_ cared about were there to witness me flop hard. And it wouldn't matter how kind and supportive they would have been after any sort of epic failure on my part... in fact, that might have only made me feel even worse.

Still, them not coming was only a minor comfort lost in the sea of dread filling up inside me now. My stomach burned with queasiness and my lungs felt like they were shrinking, making it harder and harder to breathe.

"Hmm," Lea's low hum broke me out of my thoughts. I glanced over at him as he pursed his lips to one side before shaking his head, "Mm-mm, nope. Too tangy. You need to be spoiled rotten with the sugary sweetness."

Feeling that cold anxiety loosen its grip and recede somewhat, I furrowed my brow for a few seconds before it clicked. "Ah. You've ruled out another ice cream flavor for me."

"Yup!" he chirped, switching his car over into the next lane.

"So which one got the boot this time?"

"Ever After."

"Huh," I fixed my eyes on the road straight ahead, squinting slightly. "Didn't you rule out a different flavor previously for being _too_ sweet?"

One of his hands came to rest on the shoulder of my car seat. "Well yeah, but having a sweet tooth is one thing, while suicide by pure, massive sugary overdose is something else altogether. I think you know where to draw the line."

I tipped my head to one side. "Interesting."

"Interesting?" he echoed, quirking an eyebrow as he checked his side view mirror. "...am I wrong?"

"Didn't say that," I muttered, my fingers absently fiddling with the corners of the sheet music. "Just said it was interesting."

He frowned. "Crap. That's gonna bug me now."

I flashed him a half-grin. "I know."

"Cruel, cruel woman."

I just crinkled my nose at him smugly.

I knew he was trying to take my mind off the audition. And the distraction was welcome, but unfortunately brief. I could already feel that frown resurfacing, that apprehensive chill knotting tightening in my stomach once more.

Lea shifted his head slightly towards me, watching me out of his peripheral with a small downward tug at the corner of his lips. "...ya know you got absolutely nothing to worry about, right?" he asked softly. My eyes flicked over to him for a second before staring back down at my lap again. He elaborated, "It's community theater."

My eyebrows knit together. "...so?"

"So that means ya got no one to impress. Nothing to prove. No one's gonna be expecting a Julliard education from you or for you to have a few Broadway shows under your belt. This is all just for kicks. An absolutely zero pressure environment. Just a buncha goofballs who like acting and singing and dancing around in wacky costumes and so have found others who share their same brand o' crazy so they can all geek out together doing what they love in their free time. Doesn't matter to any of 'em how good or bad ya might be. They're not there to judge, they just wanna have a good time." He lightly tapped his knuckles to my shoulder, "So loosen up, will ya? You're gonna have a blast and knock 'em dead."

The knots loosened a little and a small grin found its way onto my face despite myself. "Thanks, Lea."

Surprisingly, his words helped.

For a grand total of two minutes.

Which just so happened to be right about when we were parking in front of the auditorium. Imagine that.

"Break a leg! I'll just chill in the car and you can meet me back here when you're done," Lea told me as he rolled down his window and fished his phone out of his pocket.

I barely heard him over the sound of blood rushing in my ears. Swallowing hard and finding my throat too tight for words, I simply gave a stiff nod before climbing out of the car. Hugging the sheet music to my chest, I stepped over the curb and up onto the sidewalk before pausing to stare at the auditorium's double doors, opened wide to invite people in. My bottom lip tucked in and I made a quick glance back towards Lea who grinned and gave me a thumbs up through his window. Then I looked at that doorway once more.

My eyes hardened. My hands gripped the papers more firmly. My chest puffed up and my spine snapped straight.

Let's do this.

I determinedly marched right up to the bottom of the stairs leading up to the entrance.

Then I spun one-eighty and determinedly marched straight back the way I'd come from.

Lea looked up from his phone, both eyebrows shooting up his forehead. "El? Did you forget-"

Whipping back around, I drew in a deep breath before releasing it.

Alright, let's try that again.

I stomped towards the building once more.

This time I actually made it onto the first cement step before retreating.

Expression blank, Lea said nothing as he watched me do this again (making it as far as the second step up) and yet again (third step). By my next attempt, he'd gotten out and was leaning back against his closed car door, arms folded beneath his chest, ankles crossed. Drat, only the third step again. As I returned and came to a stop in front of him, my eyes narrowed and I released a huff through my nose. He just gave me a small shrug, as if to ask what exactly I expected him to do. I whirled on my heel once more, stormed back towards the auditorium and… fudge! Third step _again!_ Now I was just in a friggin' rut!

Beyond frustrated with myself, I walked up beside Lea this time, folded my arms atop the roof of his car, pillowed my face into them and let out a muffled yell. Then I flipped around, bracing my back against the vehicle and scowled up at the sky.

A pause.

Then Lea piped up, "Ya know you actually have to go _inside_ the place in order to audition… right?"

I whacked him upside the head with my sheet music.

"...take that as a yes."

My shoulders sagged and I hid my face behind the papers in my hands, mumbling, "I can't do this. I'm too much of a scaredy-cat."

There was a snort from him. "You kidding? You're one of the bravest people I know."

I scoffed into the printouts, "Stop patronizing me. I don't appreciate it."

"I'm serious." I felt his hands on mine, gently pulling both them and the sheet music down so I could see him standing in front of me now, hunched down to my eye level. "Do you know what the definition of being brave is?"

"Not Elsa, that's for sure," I muttered, looking away.

"Shush," he flicked my forehead. Rude. "Being brave is not a complete and total absence of fear. No, being brave is taking action _despite_ your fear. Remember your wedding day?"

I fixed him with a dull stare. "How could I forget? I ran away. Like a coward."

"No, a coward woulda done nothing. A coward woulda just done as she was told cuz she would be too chicken to make any waves. A coward woulda stayed, gone through with the wedding and led a miserable life she didn't want just to please her folks. Just because it was the safest, _easiest_ route. But you didn't do that."

"No, instead I oh so _bravely_ ran away _like a warrior_ ," I corrected my previous statement with a roll of my eyes.

He nodded, "Exactly! You were frightened, had no idea what you were gonna do, didn't have the foggiest of where to go or who to turn to, and yet you still did it. Took that leap and did the whole independent thing and guess what? You've been thriving!" His hands still cradling mine, I felt his thumbs start to trace soothing circles along my knuckles. "And sure, everything's been new and scary… finding a job, meeting new people, not caving to your family's demands… but no matter how afraid you may have got, you never hid from any of it. You've been facing your fears and meeting each new challenge head on. Now I'd call that pretty damn brave."

Wow, his pep talk game was way, _way_ better than mine.

That said, I still eyed him dubiously. "Really?"

"Hell yeah! Shit, if I had to carry around as much fear inside of me as you do, I dunno if I'd be strong enough to do half the things you've done! You're a goddamn hero, babydoll!" he smiled big. "Now, I know this is something ya really want."

My face heated and I averted my gaze. "...how can you tell?"

"Trust me, I can read you pretty well by now," his fingers tweaked my nose. "So listen up: if you can do all that other stuff that terrified you before, if you can just grab hold and take charge of your life the way you have so far, then this one teensy-weensy audition should be a total piece of cake!"

"You really think so?" I frowned uncertainly at him.

"I know so!" he declared with a laugh. "So whaddya say? Think you're ready to do this?"

Though my chest was still tight with anxiety, I could feel that tiny glow of excitement and longing deep, deep down sparking back to life. I slowly smiled and gave a hesitant nod, "...yes, I believe so."

"Then what're you standing round here for? Go on, scoot!"

I didn't budge an inch. After a few seconds, I hung my head. "My feet won't move."

Lea blinked, then chuckled softly. "Do you need me to give ya a tow?"

I grimaced, "Maybe."

"Alright, I can help you inside, but that's as far as I'll be able to take ya. It'll be up to you to get yourself on that stage."

"Just get me through that door," I agreed quietly.

Linking his hand in mine, he turned and led the way towards the auditorium. I stumbled into a walk behind him, drawing what little strength I could from his warm, steady grip. With his help, I finally made it all the way up those daunting stairs and through that foreboding doorway.

Only to be stopped almost immediately once we stepped inside by someone standing in our way.

That someone being a tall, familiar, skinny guy with a spooky yet snappy suit.

"Elsa!" Jack flashed me what I was beginning to suspect was his signature ear-to-ear grin. "You don't know how thrilled I am to see that you could make it! Here to try out or just observe?"

"...try out?" I said, voice small. Yes, it came out just like that. Like it was a question. Like there was a right or wrong answer and I was just guessing, hoping for the best.

"Splendid, Splendid! Glad to hear it! I'll get you added to the director's list and your name will be called when it's your time to shine. For now, you can just take a seat and watch the others. Lea," he turned his gaze on him now, "good to see you too, but you know the rules. Unless you're here to audition, you're going to have to wait outside."

I unconsciously sidled closer to Lea, squeezing his hand.

Huh. Guess I actually _wanted_ him to stick around and watch me make a fool out of myself. Shocked? I know I was.

Maybe it was because he thought I was brave. Maybe if he stayed, I could trick myself into thinking I was brave too.

Lea snuck a glance my way. Eyes crinkling, he squeezed my hand back before returning his attention to Jack with a sheepish grin and ruffled his fingers through his crimson spikes, "Aw c'mon, man, this is her first time! Could ya maybe be a pal, do me a solid and bend the rules a lil just this once?"

Jack crossed his arms, squinting at him with a flat look. Then he sighed and stepped to one side, his smile back and bigger than ever, "Alright, just this one time though! And you better be on your best behavior, bucko!"

"I will! Scout's honor!" he held up three fingers pressed together and beamed. "Thanks, man! Let's go, El." And with that, Lea was pulling me further inside.

The auditorium was larger on the inside than I expected, with rows upon rows of theater seating stretching out before us. While those seats were far from full, there were still more people here than I'd expected there would be, making me gulp. Auditions were already under way it seemed as I watched a familiar guy I recalled seeing in the food court previously - Joshua, I believe? - dip into a flamboyant bow before jumping down off the stage. Remaining up there was an old, clunky piano on wheels with Mullet Boy from the Blue Sitar seated at it.

"Setzer, you're up," came a call from someone sitting in the middle of the third row, presumably the director. All I could tell about him from the back of his head was that he had choppy, shoulder-length pink hair. Slumping lazily into the seat next to him with feet kicked up onto the chair in front of her was that blonde chick from Cinema XIII - I'd recognize that weird hairdo anywhere.

"Ah, looks like Marluxia The Douche-ah is running the show this time round," Lea whispered into my ear with a nod towards Mr Rosy-Locks as we walked down the aisle. "Not gonna be winning Personality Of The Year anytime soon, but I hear he can be a halfway decent director."

He then straightened back up, eyes scanning the people gathered here for a second before his face lit up, "Oo, let's sit with them!" His hands went to my shoulders and he steered me into a sharp turn down one of the rows. Coming to a stop next to two more faces I vaguely recognized, Lea greeted, "Ladies, mind if we join you?"

The two women looked up at us with friendly smiles, the ginger nodding, "Of course! Take a seat!"

We did just that, with the pair of them to my right and Lea to my left. He reached across in front of me to fistbump the closer of the two girls, "Sweet! Redheads of the world unite, booyah!"

I looked over with a timid grin. It was time once again for another one of my little misadventures into the world of small talk! Clearing my throat and tapping my sheep music against my knees to straighten them even though they were in no actual need of straightening, I asked, "It was Tiana and… Ariel, I believe?"

"Mm-hm!" Ariel closed her eyes as her smile grew. "Elsa, right? We haven't officially met yet, but I remember seeing you around at 7th Heaven that one night! You and Lea were _amazing_ at karaoke! Well… really more so you. No offense, Lea," she giggled.

"None taken. I know my gal's got a beautiful pair o' lungs on her," he slung his arm around my shoulders, hugging me close and pressing a kiss into my hair.

Tiana leaned forward to look past Ariel and meet my gaze, "You really do. Do you work with a professional voice coach or anything?"

I blushed, tugging on my braid. "I, uh… no. No, nothing like that."

"Really?" Ariel's lips formed a surprised little 'o'. Then her face brightened once more, "Well, if you're looking for someone, I can put you in touch with mine if you'd like. His name is Sebastian and he's absolutely _wonderful_. He can be uptight and a bit of a party-pooper, but he gets results!"

Squeezing my braid harder now, I gaped at her slightly. "You actually have a voice coach?"

This was _community_ theatre, as Lea had made a strong point of earlier. People here weren't supposed to have friggin' _voice coaches!_

"Yup! I'm going to be a famous singer one day and finally leave this sleepy town to tour all over the world, after all, so it's important I do my best right now! I've been practicing ever since I was-"

"Eric to the stage please," Marluxia's voice suddenly echoed throughout the room.

Ariel gasped excitedly and struck a finger up to her lips, shushing Tiana, Lea and me (despite the fact that none of us were talking) before eagerly sitting forward in her chair, practically buzzing with anticipation. That silver-haired Setzer guy - oh gosh, had he come in costume or was that crazy getup just what he normally wore? - swaggered cockily down the stairs to the right of the stage while another dude was coming up the left. The newcomer had short black hair, dimples when he smiled and I suppose what some might call Prince Charming good looks.

Ariel plonked her elbows down onto her knees and propped her chin up in both hands with a delighted sigh. "Isn't he _dreamy?_ "

Tiana wrinkled her nose and muttered to me behind Ariel's head, "She has a bit of a crush."

"You're one to talk," Ariel snorted, elbowing her in the arm. "Naveen's should be up next. Believe me," she smirked towards me, "you haven't _seen_ heart-eyes until you see the ones Tiana has for this guy."

"Shut up, do not!" she laughed, swatting her shoulder.

Brushing her off, Ariel suddenly pointed towards my sheet music. "May I?"

"Oh, uh… s-sure," I handed them over, freeing up both my hands to strangle my braid now. Noticing this, Lea took one of them in his own, shifting it over to the armrest between us and lacing his fingers into mine. The warmth of his palm against the back of my hand brought me some comfort and I felt a little less restless.

Ariel squinted at the papers for a second before grinning, "Oh wow, I love this song! Good choice! Although, if I remember correctly…" she flipped towards the end. "Ah, yup! A second singer does come in. They only have a couple lines though. I can go up with you and fill in for those bits if ya want, the director shouldn't mind!"

"That's really nice… thank you," I smiled, taking the pages back. Sally had said pretty much the same thing when I'd texted her to make sure the song would be okay, but that still had meant I needed to find someone to sing those few extra lines. I hadn't counted on someone finding _me_ instead. Thank goodness for small miracles.

This was one of my most favorite songs too. One from a musical I'd watched over and over again when I was a child, so often that it'd probably driven my parents to the point of insanity. I had just identified so much with the character who sang this number and it still to this day held a very special place in my heart, even after all these years. I knew this song forwards and backwards. Knew it like the back of my hand. I figured if I had any chance of leaving any sort of good impression here today, it would be with this song.

Looking up from the music notes scrawled across the papers, I saw that that Eric person had left. He'd been replaced by a man with a newsie hat on over his wavy, dark brown hair and was singing something jazzy. The way Tiana was reddening while Ariel giggled and whispered to her, I suspected this had to be Naveen. I tried to just sit back, relax and enjoy the show. Tried to banish the anxiety from my thoughts, instead focusing more on Lea's hand now toying with my fingers. On the way he lightly traced up and down their lengths, making them tingle pleasantly. Hoping that little tingle would help keep the nervousness at bay.

But it didn't.

I began to flinch slightly with each new name called, fearing it would be mine. Feeling a little relief when it wasn't, as well as a little annoyance from just wanting to get this over and done with already. A flinch for when Olette was called, who was sitting with a boy with black spiky hair held up by a headband. I idly wondered if it was that buddy of hers who hadn't been able to make it to Friday night drinks - Pence, I believe? Another flinch for when Yuna was called, some brunette with mismatched eyes who sang a pop song I was unfamiliar with. Two more flinches for each of her friends when their names were called, a perky blonde with a long ponytail full of small braids and a freaky looking goth chick in a tight, strappy leather outfit. And yet another flinch for when Rhyme was called, a girl whose sweet demeanor was at odds with the little skull on her black cap and the rap number she'd chosen to sing.

I had to keep resisting the urge to glance towards the doors in back. The ones leading to the outside world. To freedom. Not for the first time, I wondered… what if I made a run for it? You know, just straight up booked it? The idea did hold merit and was very tempting. Nay, _extremely_ tempting.

The only drawback? I'd hate myself.

Because as much as I was dreading this, Lea hadn't been wrong. This was something I wanted. Like… really, _really_ wanted. I'd been trying to lie to myself, pretending I didn't really care, downplaying how important it actually was to me. But this was something I'd dreamt about since I was little. Sadly, I had lost that dream somewhere along the way as I had grown older. Had misplaced and forgotten it in favor of pleasing my parents, of fulfilling their wishes and expectations for me and how I led my life. I had carelessly discarded it, giving it up for nothing more than useless childhood fantasy.

But now it had found its way back to me and I'd been given a second chance. And even if it ended up going nowhere and turned out to be nothing more than a deadend, I still had to try. I just knew that this was something that I had to do. That I _needed_ to do. For me. For the sake of my own happiness.

...gah, just why did it have to be so scary though?!

And all these women trying out before me? Were so _not_ helping! They were all so amazing and talented. Each one seemed better than the last. Each one had most likely been practicing for this audition for days, if not weeks. Each one had probably done this at least once before. Everyone knew everyone here and were all friends. Everyone, that is, except for me. How could I, a stranger with no real experience or training and very little preparation, possibly even _hope_ to stand a chance?

Man, making a break for it through that back door was looking better and better by the second.

My fingers clutched the sheet music more tightly, wrinkling and creasing it after I'd tried so hard not to this whole time. I didn't really seem to care anymore. I could feel the blood draining from my face and-

"Yawn, total snoozefest," came a sudden whisper in my ear.

I jerked my head around towards it, blinking owlishly at Lea once, then twice. "...huh?"

"Her," he nodded to the current girl trying out, her long golden hair ending in curls. "That Aurora chick. She's got me just 'bout ready to hibernate over here."

My wide eyes darted back and forth between her and him. Then it happened. A tiny snerk, escaping through my nose before I could stop it. Too late I clasped a hand over my mouth. After a short pause, I lowered it to whisper back, "You don't really mean that. You're just trying to distract me."

He bobbed his shoulders and grinned. "Is it working?"

I looked away now, carefully schooling my expression as I attempted to smooth the crumples out of my sheet music. "...maybe."

Next up was Tiana. "Jeez, talk about frog in your throat," Lea murmured low out of the corner of his mouth. A mutinous little snort burst out of my nose and I tried to shush him. Then it was Ariel's turn. "Love that girl to death but I'm sorry, a warbling seagull sounds better." I bit back a soft _pft_ and pinched his arm. I was trying not to laugh, I really was, but each remark was so ridiculous, so stupid, so obviously _not_ true that it was hard to resist. A Snow White was called next - now _that_ was a stage name if I ever heard one. At least, I hoped it was. She'd gotten about halfway through her audition when I heard a hushed, "Tch, who taught her to sing, a buncha tone-deaf coal miners?"

I spluttered, clamping my hand firmly over his mouth. "Okay, you need to stop now," I hissed out in a poor attempt to hide my amusement.

There was a mischievous gleam in his eyes. Then I felt him licking my fingers.

"Ugh, real mature," I scrunched up my face, snatching my hand back only to wipe it off on his cheek a second later.

"Psh, acting like ya don't like it," he sniggered, cupping the side of my head so he could pull me in and rub his damp cheek to mine.

I squirmed, trying to break free. "Gross! Why? Just… _why?_ "

Grip holding me firmly in place while he still nuzzled our cheeks together, he cooed, "Consider it a good luck charm from me to you! Now you have no choice but to knock their socks off!"

"How old are you, _seven?_ " I grunted, trying to wedge an elbow between us. "You seriously need to gro-"

"Could Elsa please step onto the stage now?"

Both Lea and I froze for a split second. Fudge, I'd all but forgotten where I was and why I was here. Now it all came crashing back to me.

_Ka-thunk._

What was that, you might be wondering? Oh nothing really. Just the sound of my heart plummeting to the bottom of my gut.

Before I'd even realized what I was doing, I'd sprung up onto my feet and was walking briskly towards the center aisle with all the grace and dignity I could muster. As if I couldn't still feel Lea's slobber drying on my cheek. Good luck charm, indeed. I'd show _him_ good luck!

...that hadn't come across sounding as threatening as I would have liked.

It took a few seconds for it to really sink in. What I was doing. Where I was going. What I was _about_ to do. I was about to audition… to _sing_ in front of all of these people. I had to remind myself that this was something that I really, truly wanted. It was hard to remember right now in this exact second, but the desire was still there. Way deep, deep down inside of me, there was still that tiny spark valiantly burning away, smothered and small though it may be at the moment.

As each step brought me closer to that stage, I felt it again. That chilly dread pooling in the pit of my stomach. The iciness seemed to spread outward and I slowly grew numb. My mind started to feel detached and far away from the rest of my body, like I was no longer in control of it. Instead, it was more like I was only a passenger as it kept moving me forward seemingly of its own accord now, taking me up those stairs leading to my doom. That's right, my _doom_. I wasn't being over dramatic here at all. Not one bit.

_Conceal, don't feel._

As I started crossing the stage, I was hardly even aware of Ariel out of the corner of my eye, whispering something to Marluxia before he gave a curt nod and she was scrambling up those steps after me. My ankle boots against the hardwood echoed loudly throughout the quiet theater. _Too_ loudly, it felt like. But it paled in comparison to the thundering of my heart - oh gosh, could everyone else hear it too?

_Conceal, don't feel._

All too soon, I was reaching the pianist and offering him the (rather abused at this point) sheet music with a shaky hand. He took it, looking it over briefly before setting it down on the music rack and smiling, "Just give me a nod when you're ready."

Ariel popped up then, plonking down onto the bench beside him with a grin. "I'll just sit with Demyx here and jump in for the parts you need me. Don't worry, you'll do great!"

My mouth tightened into a crude approximation of a smile before I turned to face the audience.

Big mistake.

Jeez, were there more people out there now? I could _swear_ there were more people. Somehow, I willed my feet to move me closer to the front and center of the performance area. My fingers were running along my braid nonstop, up and down, up and down. My breathing had become so rapid and shallow. It felt like I wasn't getting enough oxygen into my lungs. Could the air be thinner here on stage? You know, all the way up at this higher altitude of a whopping five feet?

_Conceal, don't feel._

My eyes darted from face to unfamiliar face, not sure where to look. At the director maybe? That'd make sense, right? He'd be the one to decide my fate here, after all. I glanced down at Marluxia. At that blonde chick next to him - maybe she was his assistant director? Did community theater even have an assistant director? Well I suppose it would just depend on- _focus, Elsa, focus!_ I squeezed my eyes shut with a grimace before opening them back up, looking to that pair once more. By their expressions, they both already seemed so remarkably unimpressed by me and I hadn't even begun yet. No, staring at them would only rattle me more.

I gripped at my braid more tightly and my gaze shifted about once more, almost desperate now, searching for what, I wasn't quite sure. But at last I seemed to find it - a face I knew. Lea's face. There, suddenly, like a beacon in the crowd. I wasn't quite sure how I'd not seen him until now. When our eyes met, he merely bobbed his head slightly and smiled at me. So small, so simple. And yet it filled me with such warmth and encouragement.

Lea thought I was brave.

And maybe, just for this one moment, I could pretend to be.

I inhaled deeply, my breath a raspy hiss through my nose. Holding it in for a couple seconds, I then puffed it out softly, releasing my braid and letting my hands fall to my sides. Finally, I gave Demyx a stiff nod over my shoulder.

Welp. This was it. No turning back now.

It was probably only a second, maybe two, but it felt like an eternity before that first piano note sounded. When at last it did, I swear it practically gave me a heart attack and my knees almost buckled. But I steadied myself, my clammy hands smoothing the nonexistent wrinkles out of my dress as I let the tune wash over me, trying to find solace in its familiarity. I kept my eyes fixed on Lea. Anywhere else and I knew I would lose my nerve completely. I could hear it coming in the music. My cue to start singing. I sucked in a breath.

" _Every inch of me is trembling,"_ oh gosh, that had never been more true than it was in this very moment, _"but not from the cold. Something is familiar like a dream I can reach but not quite hold."_ Was I too quiet? Pretty sure I was too quiet. Licking my dry lips, I pushed my quavering voice to be louder, _"I can sense you there like a friend I've always known... I'm arriving and it feels like I am hom-"_ I choked, my tongue stumbling over the word. My pulse flatlined, my blood turned to ice in my veins, and every atom in me was screaming at me to run, run, _run_.

But I resisted. I don't know how, but I did. Maybe it was Lea's reassuring gaze still holding mine. Maybe it was that spark deep down inside, flaring up obstinately to fight back against the cold fear closing in around my heart. Whatever it was, I remained rooted to the spot, clenching and unclenching my hands and eyes hard.

" _I have always been a fortress,"_ my heart hammered in my ears as I stubbornly pushed on, pretending I hadn't made a mistake, _"cold secrets deep inside. You have secrets too, but you don't have to hide."_ Lea folded his arms atop the back of the chair in front of him, bending forward to rest his chin atop them and looking quite content. Feeling emboldened, I went into the chorus, _"Show yourself, I'm dying to meet you. Show yourself, it's your turn."_ I think my voice was getting stronger. Perhaps it was only wishful thinking. _"Are you the one I've been looking for all of my life? Show yourself, I'm ready to learn... Ah-ah, ah-ah!"_ I rang out the last bit and I heard Ariel's voice echo an answering call behind me.

" _I've never felt so certain, all my life I've been torn,"_ some of my tension was beginning to melt away and I took a tiny step forward. _"But I'm here for a reason, could it be the reason I was born?"_ I could feel something bubbling up inside my chest… giddiness, maybe? _"I have always been so different, normal rules did not apply. Is this the day? Are you the way I finally find out why?"_ A smile was beginning to find its way onto my face. I couldn't believe it. A small, but actual, _genuine_ smile of pure joy.

" _Show yourself, I'm no longer trembling!"_ I burst out suddenly, almost triumphantly. Lea was lifting his head back up, face slack, eyes round. I had no idea what that meant. Was it a good reaction? A bad one? Either way, I was spurred on to do better. _"Here I am, I've come so far! You are the answer I've waited for all of my life! Oh, show yourself, let me see who you are!"_ I wasn't even looking at him anymore. I was starting to forget about where I was, just getting lost in the was the only thing that mattered to me anymore in that moment.

I brought my voice back down, singing slowly, sweetly, _"Come to me now, open your door, don't make me wait one moment more... Oh, come to me now,"_ I repeated the line with more energy, _"open your door, don't make me wait one moment more!"_

" _Where the north wind meets the sea,_ " Ariel chimed in now and I took the moment to close my eyes, pulling in a big breath and reveling in the delightful tingle in my chest. I was entering the home stretch and there was no fear left. Only excitement. _"There's a river full of memory... Come, my darling, homeward bound…"_

" _I am found!"_ I sang, putting all I had into it, letting the last word stretch and ring throughout the theater. _"Show yourself, step into the power! Grow yourself into something new!"_

Ariel came in one last time, _"You are the one you've been waiting for…"_

" _All of my life!"_ I belted out, finishing the line she'd started. " _Oh, show yourself! Ah-ah, ah-ah!"_ I vocalized the notes a few more times, each round louder and more confident than the last before finally ending the song in one long crescendo.

The auditorium was suddenly very quiet except for my low panting as I tried to catch my breath.

Then I heard it.

The sound of clapping. More specifically, of one _single_ person clapping very enthusiastically, reverberating noisily around the otherwise dead silent room.

Feeling my face erupt in heat, I immediately buried it in my hands. I knew who it was, even before I parted my fingers to peek between them out into the audience. Yup. There he was. Lea, up on his feet to give me a standing ovation while everyone else remained seated, staring at him blankly.

The dork.

Ariel was at my side now, snickering as she muttered behind her hand to me, " _This_ is why they normally don't let the boyfriends in to watch."

He didn't look like he planned on quitting any time soon either.

" _Hsst!_ " I blew through my grit teeth at him discreetly. Well… as discreetly as I could, given I was still standing on a stage in front of a room full of people. "Stop it," I whispered, narrowing my eyes on him. I could see Jack making long, annoyed strides towards Lea. "You hear me? _Stop. It._ "

He seemed to take 'stop it' to mean 'applaud harder and pepper it with a few shrill whistles for good measure.'

I sighed, hanging my head and pressing my fingers between my eyebrows.

"D'aw, I think it's cute," I heard Ariel laugh and I hazarded a glance up again. Lea, finally spotting Jack coming for him, had vaulted himself over some chairs into the next row and was trying to make a run for it. "Your boyfriend is your biggest fan."

"...yes," I rubbed a curled finger over my lips, eyes crinkling as I watched the little scene he was making. Sally had been waiting for him on the other end of the seats opposite of Jack. Realizing his mistake too late, she snagged him by the ear before he could backtrack and started dragging him out of the auditorium. "Yes, I suppose he is."

I still had to sing my second song, the one from _Wicked_ itself. That one ended up being a lot less nerve-wracking. Don't get me wrong, a few jitters yet remained to wriggle about my insides, but I was still riding the endorphin high from getting through my first song, making the second one seem like a breeze in comparison. When I was done, the only acknowledgement I got from Marluxia was an impassive, "Thank you," before he was calling the next person. I hurried off the stage and had a quick word with Jack and Sally before saying my farewell and walking outside.

The sun was beginning to set by now, making the shadows stretch long. It wasn't hard to spot Lea, leaning against his car as he thumbed through his phone and waited.

My heart swelled and my feet suddenly had a mind of their own, propelling me forward.

He glanced up, pocketing his phone and grinning big at me as he used his foot to push himself up off the car. "Hey! You kicked some serious ass up th-" A surprised grunt was forced out of him as I suddenly crashed into his chest, hugging him tightly around the waist.

"...thank you for that," I muffled quietly into his shirt.

Lea was very still for a second. But then I felt a small chuckle rumbling throughout his body as his arms slowly wrapped around my shoulders, returning the embrace. "Nah, that was all you, El. I just provided the wheels that got ya here."

I loosened my grip but didn't fully let go. Just enough so I could lean back slightly to smile up at him. "Thanks for coming with me. I didn't think I'd wanted anyone here, but… it made a difference and meant more to me than I realized it would. And thank you for encouraging me to do this and…" my nose wrinkled a bit, "...and for making me get up on that karaoke stage a couple weeks ago, despite my multiple protests."

He snorted, but his face softened as he brushed some of my hair behind my ear, his thumb just barely grazing along my cheek with the gesture. "What can I say? Being a pushy, overbearing asshole is one of my many wonderful talents."

"That's not what I meant," my eyelids drooped.

"I know," he hummed a laugh as he pulled me in for another hug, squeezing me close as he rested his chin atop my head. We stayed that way for a few seconds more before he released a heavy sigh. Then he pulled back, cupped my face with both his hands, tenderly pressed his lips to my forehead, and...

...blew a goddamn raspberry.

I gasped and shoved him away, furiously scrubbing at my brow with my forearm. "Ugh, was getting more of your slobber on my face completely necessary?!"

"Oh without a doubt! I know what a huge fan of it ya are," he smirked cheekily as he made his way around his car to open the door for me. "Now then, shall we get you home, m'lady, so we can spread the good news?"

I squinted at him with a frown as I followed him over and took a seat. "...what good news?"

"That ya got the starring role, of course!" he chirped down at me.

"I did not-" I was interrupted as he shut the car door in my face. Huffing and buckling myself in, I waited until he was climbing into the driver seat to try again, "They won't even be announcing who's getting what part until _next_ week, but I seriously doubt they're going to give me a lead."

"You're right, my mistake," he stuck his key into the ignition and twisted it, shooting me a wink. "They'll give ya two."

"Goodness, I'm getting _two_ leads now?" I fought the upward tug I felt at one side of my mouth. "Do you even know how plays work?"

"Course! That's why I know for a _fact_ that they're just gonna give you _all_ the parts."

I bit back a grin. "Huh. A one-woman _Wicked_ show. Now that'd certainly be a… choice."

"And one I have every confidence in you to pull off!" he nodded chipperly as we exited the parking lot.

I just shook my head at him. Honestly, I didn't care what part I got. I'd be honored just to be included in the chorus if they even gave me that much. But no, all that I really cared about was that I'd actually done it. Gone through with the audition and lived to tell the tale. And sure, it had scared me out of my mind, but in the end it'd been worth it. Because you know what? Turned out I'd absolutely loved singing on that stage. And I knew for sure now that this was something I wanted to do… something that I wanted to play a part in my life, no matter how big or small. And so what if I most likely wasn't going to get the lead this time around? I could just use this experience to learn the ropes and get better prepared.

Better prepared, that is, to totally _crush_ it at the audition for the next show.

* * *

_**Author's Note:** _ _And yet another scene where I included the full lyrics of a song sang by a character - again, it's not something I would normally do, but I felt this was a rare occasion where it's important enough to Elsa's character growth that again I shouldn't just gloss over it. But gosh, I feel so awkward writing detailed singing scenes! Why oh why did I have to make her want to do something with singing? This was a story decision I fast grew to regret, haha xD I hope it turned out okay tho! Anyhoo, for anyone out there who hasn't seen Frozen 2, the song she sings this chapter, Show Yourself, is from that - I suggest you give it a listen if you haven't heard it before :) Actually hearing it does it way more justice than I could ever do in writing xD And I've decided that Disney movies still exist in this AU, they're just musicals now and the characters in those musicals most likely just all have different names than their Disney movie counterparts, but the plot is otherwise unaffected xP_ _Fun fact: The ice cream this chapter, Ever After, is named after Corona's keyblade and I imagine its description on the menu would look something like: "Let down your golden lemon soft serve! A specialty from Corona, this treat is garnished with edible flowers and served in a stack of purple waffles cones to form a tower."_

_Thank you so much for reading, especially to those of you who have left a kudos and shared with me your thoughts and feelings on this story so far! Remember, feedback is not only welcome, but highly encouraged and super appreciated!_


	23. Chapter 23

"Sorry, did I miss a point back there where my car transformed into a submarine to cross the Atlantic Ocean?"

I turned my head towards Lea, knitting my eyebrows together. "Pardon?"

"Well I just don't see how else we would have ended up at freaking Buckingham Palace," he muttered, keeping one hand on the steering wheel while the other tipped his aviators forward for a better look at the mansion at the end of the long, extravagant driveway he was currently cruising his car down. He gave a low whistle, "Shit, all it's missing are those dudes in the highschool band uniforms and big fuzzy hats."

Rolling my eyes, I snorted softly. "Oh come now, it's not _that_ big."

He scoffed, "'Not that big' is something girlfriends say about their exes to protect their insecure boyfriends' fragile male egos. It's _not_ what you say about the Taj Ma-fucking-hal here."

The dreaded weekend was upon us at last.

You know. _The Weekend_. Capital T, capital W.

Aka, the visit with my parents.

Operation Boyfriend But Shh Not Really was about to be tested to the extreme limits.

The chateau in question (maybe villa would be a better word? Or manor, perhaps? Really, it wasn't big at all, Lea was just exaggerating) belonged to my parents. This was the home I'd grown up in. It was weird coming back here now after all that had happened. Was _still_ in the process happening, I suppose. My fingers fidgeted with my braid as the mansion loomed ever higher the closer we got.

Actually… now that we were more up close and I was _really_ seeing it again… oh gosh, it was rather enormous, wasn't it?

...had it somehow _grown_ in size since last I-?

Shush, now, don't be ridiculous. That was just the anxiety talking.

Of which I was in no short supply of. I still had no clue what was in store for this weekend. Anna seemed almost just as much in the dark as I was, which was strange seeing as how she still lived here. Then again, I was pretty sure she'd been spending a lot less time around home lately in favor of staying over at her new boyfriend's place. A man I still surprisingly knew absolute zilch about, but I was hoping Anna had invited him to join us for this weekend as well. That way, I'd get to meet him _and_ maybe even have a little of the attention taken off me. Long shot, I know, considering he was only Anna's still relatively new beau whereas _I'd_ skipped out on my own wedding and shamed my whole family (apparently), so this guy was kind of small potatoes by comparison. But hey, a girl can dream, can't she?

It was actually Friday evening right now, so we were going to be in for more of a _long_ weekend - in every sense of the word. Lea and I had both worked early shifts today before going to our respective homes, getting changed, packing bags for staying over for two nights and then finally heading up. Not knowing what this weekend was going to entail was wreaking no small amount of havoc on my nerves. That said, it could have been worse. Pretty sure I'd actually been _more_ nervous for the audition a couple days ago than I was for this. Maybe that was because the audition had just been so last minute, whereas I'd been preparing for this little get-together for a couple weeks now. Even I had to admit that Lea and I made a pretty convincing couple at this point. Sure, I still got a bit awkward with PDAs, but I was no longer anywhere near as bad as I had been the day I'd seen father at my old condo.

...then again, doing the whole relationship act around the mall for the past couple weeks was one thing. Trying to pull off the same charade in front of my parents now, not to mention the Duke as well? Probably was going to be a _lot_ more complicated.

I really had no idea what was going to happen the moment we passed through those ornate double doors leading into my parent's home.

But I was about to find out.

Whether I liked it or not.

"Alright, we made it," Lea announced as he parked the car next to the big fountain in the middle of the circle driveway, shutting off his engine. He shot me a grin, "You ready for this, my lil sötnos?"

I blinked over at him, then narrowed my eyes. "Do I even want to know?"

"It's a Swedish term of endearment. Its literal translation is sweet nose. And if yours ain't the sweetest, I dunno what is," his grin twitched wider as he reached over to tweak said nose.

"Sweet n-" I groaned, swatting his hand away. " _Veto_."

"Aw c'mon, I thought that one was cute!" he gave a little whine. I just drooped my eyelids at him and he sighed, stretching over to open his glove compartment and pull a black marker from it. "Guess America's just not ready for the sweet nose," he grumbled, pulling the cap off with his teeth and marking something off on his palm.

I frowned. "...what are you doing?"

"Regrettably giving up on what is arguably the greatest pet name of all time, that's what."

"No, I meant with your hand." I snatched his in both mine, yanking it over in front of my face to discover a small list written on the inside of his palm, located at the top of which was _sötnos_ with a line struck through it. "...are these... _more_ terms of endearment for me?"

He smirked as he leaned in closer to stare down at his palm alongside me. "Yup! Since the big weekend's here, figured I'd best come prepared. This is important stuff we gotta nail down!"

I squinted at the words before me, reading, "Kruzynko…?"

"It means breadcrumb."

Scrunching up my nose, I stole the marker from him and crossed that one off. "No. Bogárkám?"

"My little bug," Lea supplied, sounding more confident in this one.

A snerk. "Nope," I popped the P. And another one bites the dust. My tongue tripped uncertainly over the next one, "Blodyn tatws?"

"Heh… potato flowers?" he asked hopefully.

"Oh wow, I love that one."

He perked up, "Really?"

"Absolutely... _not_ ," I said flatly, looking him dead in the eye as I drew a line across it as well.

"Aw man, not cool!" He pouted, then pursed his lips to one side. "Hey, is now really the best time to be doing this? We, uh…" he chuckled sheepishly, holding up his second hand to reveal a whole other list scrawled on that one too, "...might end up being here all day."

I stared blankly at him. "Just how many more of those do you have?"

"I'd show ya, but that'd require me going a lil more half monty than you'd probably prefer I'd get in your parent's driveway."

My brow furrowed and I leaned away slightly, eyeing him up and down. "...where…?"

He waggled his eyebrows at me, "That's for me to know and you to find out."

I let his hand drop from my grasp, "I'm good, thanks." As he snickered, I looked away, rubbing my fingertips over one of my (now brought to a low simmer) cheeks. "Can't you just stick to El? It's simple. Nice… I like El."

"You do?" I heard him ask and I directed a furtive sideways glance in his direction. A slow smile was curling his lips, "Alright… El it is." But then he was peeking down at his palm again. "...and also krúttið mitt."

Biting back a grin, I swat his shoulder. "How would _you_ like it if I kept calling you some weird pet name in a foreign language all the time?"

Lea beamed, "I'd like it very much actually."

"Really? Fine," I took up his hand again, scrutinizing his palm, "...mo chuisle it is then."

His eyes lit up, "Ooo, that one's spicy!"

Oh dear, why had I thought this was a good idea again?

"...what's it mean?"

He bent towards me, eyes hooded as he purred, "You just called me your pulse."

I've made a grave error this day.

"Ah-ah!" he chirped, pressing a finger to my lips as they began to part. "Too late! No take-backsies!"

I huffed, unbuckled my seatbelt and got out of the car, slamming the door shut behind me.

Lea looked far too smug as he climbed out himself, retrieving both our bags from the backseat of the car on his way out and slinging them over his shoulder. He removed his aviators, hooking them into the collar of his black, fitted v-neck shirt as his eyes took in the mansion before us once again. He'd reclaimed his leather jacket to wear for this, accompanied by snug jeans tastefully ripped at just one knee and a pair a black, heavy, steel-toed boots. He'd blinged out a bit as well, sporting a small sun medallion that hung from a chain down to his mid-chest, along a few strappy leather bracelets and a couple of rings decorating his fingers. His winged guyliner was somehow even darker and bolder than usual and his hair had been pulled back into a half-tail.

Not going to lie, my traitorous fingers practically itched to pet that little red tuft at the back of his head.

Instead, I settled for fussing with the necklace that rested against my skin just above my collarbone. The pendant was formed of three blue, almond-shaped gemstones gathered together at one point. A present from Rayne to wish me luck on this trip. I was a _much_ bigger fan of her good luck charm than I had been of the one Lea had "gifted" me with for the musical tryouts. I wore the small charm with a classic little wrap dress in a soft lilac. Off the shoulder of course - it was _me_ we were talking about here, so you can probably guess it before I even say it at this point - and with the hem of the skirt flaring out around the knees.

Needless to say, looking at him and me side-by-side right now, it was clear one of us was either severely over or underdressed. Considering it was my parents' door we were about to knock on, one guess as to who was what.

"Try not to scratch the paint, chief!" Lea chipperly called out as he was suddenly tossing his keys at one of the staff under my parents' employ who just so happened to be walking past us in that second.

Eyes widening, the man fumbled to catch them. As Lea turned to head towards the front door, I followed, quirking my eyebrow at him. "What was that?"

"I'm blending in," he flashed a cheeky smile, shoving a hand into one pocket of his jacket. "Whatcha think, do I sound like a rich asshole or what?"

I tipped my head to one side. "...actually, you kind of sounded like my ex."

A snort escaped through his nose. "I'll take that as a yes then."

We walked a couple steps in silence. Then, "That wasn't a valet, by the way."

He froze midstep, looking at me sharply. "What?"

"That was a gardener. My parents don't even have a valet."

"Oh." Lea glanced back over his shoulder, frowning. "...maybe I should go get my keys back then."

I hid a small grin behind my fingers. "Maybe you should."

Waiting politely, I watched him jog back towards the worker to do just that, along with offering what looked to be quite the humble apology. "Got 'em!" he declared once he'd rejoined me, flinging them up into the air before catching them again to slip into his pocket. "So even a proper gent like your old man feels the need to prove what a hot, young stud he still is, eh? Wouldn't of thought him the type."

"What?" I blinked a couple times. Where'd _that_ come from?

He tossed his chin back towards his vehicle. More specifically, at the few other cars he'd parked next to. "I recognize Anna's Porsche over there, but that blue Ferrari reeks of midlife crisis."

"...that's my car." Then I grimaced and amended, "Rather, _was_ my car."

"Huh?" he looked taken aback. "You drive? Since when?"

I gave a small shrug, "Since always."

"Then why're you always having me n' your roomies chauffeur you around? Not that I _mind_..."

"I don't have a car or the funds to purchase one." He wordlessly jerked his thumb back towards the Ferrari, face blank. I sighed, "My parents bought me that. It didn't feel right keeping it after… everything. Not with me trying to separate myself from them and make it on my own. No, I plan to buy my own once I've saved up enough."

"Shit, still shoulda kept it," Lea said and I gave him a dull look. He hastily waved a hand in front of him, "Even if ya didn't want it, you coulda sold it and made bank before giving all that munny away to charity. Ya know, just so you could _really_ stick it to your folks."

Shaking my head with a soft chuckle, I started walking towards the entrance again. "Let's just get on with this."

"Aye aye, Capitaine," he gave me a two-fingered salute, catching up to me with his long strides.

Feeling my chest start to constrict as we drew nearer to those doors, I blew out a soft, slow breath. "I hope we're not late. I shouldn't have let you talk me into that salon visit after we got off work."

"What, you needed something to help ya relax and a quick spa day was just the ticket! 'Sides, I wanted to make myself all pretty for this! Whaddya think?" He stretched his arm out before us both, fingers wiggling to show off his fresh coat of black nail polish. "If this doesn't impress your folks and tell 'em what a man of sophisticated tastes I am, I dunno what will!"

I snorted. "I think my father is more of a mauve man himself."

"Really? Crap, you shoulda said something! I'd have asked for a matching color so he and I could be twinsies! Shucks," he snapped his fingers, "missed opportunity."

Coming to a stop on the doorstep, I reached for the bell, but my fingers hesitated.

This was so strange. I'd lived here. Spent my _childhood_ here. I'd _never_ had to use the doorbell before.

...why did the idea of doing so now seem so hard?

A sudden warmth enveloped my other hand. I looked down to discover Lea was holding it. He gave it a small squeeze as he said softly, "Hey. Whatever happens in there, just know I'm here for you."

I felt a small stutter in my chest as a tiny smile tugged at my lips. "...thank you," I murmured, squeezing back before looking to the doorbell once more. Taking a deep, calming breath, I pushed the button at last and a heavy chime could be heard within.

While we waited, a glimmer of something at Lea's waist caught my eye and I turned to see what it was. A crease formed between my eyebrows. "...is that… a _wallet chain?_ "

How had I missed that thing until now?

"Hm?" he followed my gaze. "Oh! Yup! Heh, thought it might really pull the whole look together! Do I look like a punkass bad boy now or what?"

"Or what," I fixed him with a deadpan stare. "You look ridiculous."

He splayed a hand against his chest in mock offense. "Rude. Can't believe you'd talk to your pulse like that."

Face warming, I hung my head. "...I'm never going to hear the end of that, am I?"

"Nope!" he grinned wickedly.

"Would you just take that silly thing off?"

"No can do, sweetcheeks! Boys like to accessorize too, ya know," he sniggered, giving the chain a little twirl. "Just be grateful I left the spiked choker in the glove compartment."

"Spi-?!" I spluttered over the word before managing a scoff and crossing my arms. "Oh, trust me, I _am_. The point is to get my parents to back off, not to send them into cardiac arrest!"

...huh… Lea in a spiked choker…

"You're trynta imagine what I'd look like wearing it now, aren't ya?" he'd hunched down beside me to whisper into my ear with a smirk.

My cheeks burned so hot, you could have roasted marshmallows on the damn things.

"...am not."

I was almost grateful when the door swung open just then. And also a little surprised, because the face that greeted me wasn't that of my parents' house maid Gerda.

No, instead it was that of a pale, wide-eyed, huffing and puffing Anna.

(With Gerda right behind her, looking quite harried and put out by the fact that my sister had stolen her job.)

"Elsa!" she cried out in relief. "Finally! What took you so long?!"

Furrowing my brow, I began, "Anna? What-?"

"No time! Get." She lunged towards me. "In here." Her hands seized my shoulders. " _Now!_ " I was forcibly yanked inside.

I heard the door booming shut behind me and could only hope that Lea had managed to slip in himself in time as well. Gripping my sister's arms, I tried again, "What's going on? We couldn't be more than a few minutes la-"

Her hand suddenly shot out to squeeze my cheeks together between her thumb and fingers, squishing my face and effectively silencing me. "Shush! No talkie! Only listen! Oh, it's bad, Sis. Really, _really_ bad! It's _him!_ He's here! Like, _here_ here! Right friggin' _now!_ "

"Who's here?" I asked, tugging my face free of her vice-like grip and working my jaw. I knit my eyebrows together at Gerda, who was frantically circling us as she kept trying and failing to get a word in edgewise. "The Duke? I already knew-"

"No! Not the _Duke!_ Of _course_ not, he won't be here until _tomorrow!_ Gah! You know, Sis, sometimes you can be really-" Anna cut herself off in a tiny snarl, fingers curling in front of her to strangle empty air. "Ugh! Anyway, it's- I didn't- It was just- Out of nowhere- Mom and Dad, they- He- His-"

"I think she's trying to tell us something. What is it, Lassie? Timmy trapped in the well again?" Lea snerked as he let our luggage fall to the foyer floor beside his boots.

Ignoring him, I gently rubbed my hands up and down Anna's arms. "Breathe. Calm down. Take a minute to gather your thoughts."

"People!" she suddenly blurted out, startling me a bit. "Lots of them! _Loads_ of them! So many _people!_ "

I frowned. "People? Where? You mean here, now?"

She shook her head rapidly, "No, no, no, _no!_ Not now people! Future people! _Tomorrow_ people! And… and caterers! And musicians! And decorators and, and, and _him!_ He's- Right now, he's- just down the hall, he's- he's-"

"Who, Anna? Who?" I insisted.

Her hands violently shook me, " _Him!_ "

Right. Thanks, Sis. Big help you are.

Why was she like this?

The maid finally managed to pipe in, "What Miss is trying to tell you is that your-"

"Got it, Gerda, thanks!" Anna huffed out with a tiny scowl. Then she took in a deep breath, preparing to say something.

"Crap, I think that dude just robbed us," Lea chimed in first.

Holding a finger up to Anna, I whipped my head around to see what he was talking about: an older gentleman in a black suit walking briskly away with our bags. "Oh, that's just Kai."

Lea cocked an eyebrow at me, "The robber's name is Kai?"

"No, the _butler's_ name is Kai."

"Why would the butler rob us?"

"He's not _robbing_ us, he's just taking our things up to our room." I blanched. " _Rooms_." Plural. As in more than one. My parents would never, not in a million years, have put Lea and me in the same room under their roof… right? Oh gosh, why was the possibility only just now occurring to me? "He's, uh… he's p-putting them where we'll be _staying_. Separately. As in, not together. Completely and one hundred percent apart," I (overly) clarified, fighting that blush I felt creeping up my neck now.

Anna suddenly grabbed my head with both hands and forced me to look at her again, grounding out through her teeth, "You're. Not. _Listening_ to me!" Then with a grumbling sigh, she snagged my hand in hers and started dragging me down one of the many corridors that branched off from the foyer. "Come on, we better hurry, they're probably wondering what's taking so long."

Gerda squeaked and scurried after us. "Right this way, please, and I'll see you to the Marigold Room where your hosts await your presence!" she awkwardly trilled, trying to maintain some semblance of performing her duties despite Anna's continued interference.

A whistle from Lea confirmed he was following as well. "Lemme guess. The Duke in the conservatory with the candlestick."

"Wha-?" my voice faltered as my feet tripped trying keep up with Anna, only barely managing to keep myself upright.

He grinned down at me as he strode along, shrugging. "This whole place is a legit, life-sized Clue board. Just trynta play the game here."

I stumbled again. "Ow, Anna! Not so hard. What is the rush?"

Not slowing down, she glanced back at me over her shoulder. "Come on, Elsa, _think!_ What day is it?"

"Uh…" Was this a trick question? "...Friday?"

A low, agitated noise emitted from her throat. "No, what _day?_ "

I squinted up at the ceiling in thought. "...the seventh?"

"Yes!" she spun around to tap her nose excitedly, her feet still moving backwards. "Which would make tomorrow…?"

"The eighth." Lost by this line of questioning? I know I was.

" _Of?_ " she pressed. "What month, Elsa?"

"The eighth of… oh!" It finally clicked and I staggered again, my eyes growing round. "...oh _no_. It's _his_ birthday. Oh gosh, he's _here?!_ Right _now?!_ "

"Yes! _Finally!_ Thank you!" Anna cried out in exasperation.

"Who?" Lea asked, both eyebrows shooting up his forehead at my sudden change of attitude.

"It's-" I began, but that one word was all I got out before Anna took a sudden sharp turn, yanking me into the Marigold Room with her and bringing us face to face with-

"Grandfather!" I breathed, feet faltering as Anna brought us both to a sudden and jerky stop before him.

He cut an imposing figure, my grandfather. Tall, like father, and with the same red hair too that had been passed down to Anna. His however bore prominent streaks of grey at his temples - really the only sign of him getting on in years as he otherwise looked remarkably good for a man of his age. Still fit as a fiddle, barrel-chested, with a strong, square jaw and a sharp, piercing gaze.

A gaze that was so cold right now that I didn't know how I wasn't frozen into solid ice on the spot.

Anna had been wrong.

This wasn't bad.

This was _catastrophic_.

Because my grandfather? Not exactly the nicest person. Remember what my father had been like? Well, just think - he'd had to learn it from somewhere. And next to Grandfather, my father seemed warm and cuddly. Like sunshine and rainbows. Heck, Father was as friggin' _teletubby_ by comparison to the man who'd raised him. Grandfather was cut from the same cloth as his brother, the Duke. The epitome of old fashioned and proper etiquette. The thing was, where the Duke was all bluster and tantrums, Grandfather just got quiet when he was angry. Like... really, _really_ quiet. An ominous kind of quiet. A _bone-chilling_ kind of quiet. Whenever Grandfather stopped talking, that's when I really got scared of the man.

No, scratch that. That was when I got _petrified_ of the man.

So the fact that he was just staring down his nose at me right now, eyes narrowed, lips set into a grim, disapproving line, and not uttering a single word? Would have been enough to turn my hair stark white if it weren't pretty damn close already.

And to make matters worse? Mother and Father stood not five feet behind him looking rather unamused with me themselves.

Oh gosh, this wasn't going to be some pleasant, little family gathering.

This was going to be an _execution_. Mine, to be exact.

Gerda suddenly appeared off to one side, panting to catch her breath and making a hasty curtsy towards my parents and grandfather before announcing, "Elsa and her guest have arrived."

...thanks, Gerda. I think they figured that out already.

I watched as she turned and hurried to make her exit before reluctantly returning my gaze to Grandfather. Still, he said nothing. Just arched one bushy eyebrow at me and waited.

Oh fudge, he wanted _me_ to be the first one to speak? Where do I even begin? What do I even say? Could I even _talk_ right now? I don't think I could, not with how heavy my tongue suddenly felt, like it had turned into solid lead. What was I supposed to do here? How-

Suddenly, I felt it. A hand. _Lea's_ hand, slipping across the small of my back and coming to rest on my hip, pulling me gently into his side. "Aren'tcha gonna introduce me, babe?" he asked, voice low and sugary-sweet as he grinned and pressed a kiss to my temple.

Grandfather's thick mustache gave a little twitch.

That's all it took for me to know. Not thirty seconds into this and there was absolutely zero doubt in my mind.

Before this weekend was out, Grandfather was going to _murder_ Lea.

Inhaling and exhaling, I wrung my hands together and somehow figured out how to do this thing called 'talking' once again. "F-Father, you've already had the, uh… the pleasure, but Grandfather, Mother… this… this is…" I screwed my eyes shut, trying to steel myself.

Come on, Elsa, you can do this. Just one word. Just one measly, little word.

"This is my boooooo-" What was this? What was I doing here? "-oooooooooooooooo-" Why was I stretching the syllable out so friggin' long? What, had I gotten stuck? "-oooooooooooooo-" Dear god, how was there this much oxygen in my lungs? "-oooooooooo-" I didn't think there was even this much oxygen on the whole _planet_ , much less inside my _lungs_. "-oooyyyyyyy-" Oh good. Progress. At this rate, I'd complete the word sometime this century. "-yyyyyyyyy-"

Anna, my divine saviour and blessed angel of mercy, jabbed her elbow into my gut.

"- _friend!_ " I finished at last with a cough. "Boyfriend. This is my...my boyfriend. Yes. This is he. He is this." A beat. Then, " _Lea!_ By the way. His name, that is. Yup. Lea the Boyfriend. _My_ boyfriend. That's right, Lea is my boyfriend. My boyfriend is-"

"I think they get it, Sis," Anna hissed quietly out of the corner of her plastered-on smile.

Gee, I was getting so good at this whole lying thing, wasn't I?

"Pleased to meet ya, Gramps," Lea stretched out a hand towards him.

Grandfather didn't take it. Instead, he just stared long and hard at it. At the black nail polish and rings adorning it. Finally, he lifted his chin with a sniff and straightened his already ramrod posture even further. "That'll be _Sir_ to you, young man."

"Oo, how formal. Whatever you say," he retracted his hand with a smirk, " _Sir_ Gramps."

This had been a mistake, using Lea as my rent-a-boyfriend.

Actually… no, _mistake_ would be an understatement. This was a powder keg and Lea was a goddamn burning match.

Pushing past my now rigidly stiff grandfather, Lea approached my parents next. "Pops, always a pleasure. Ma'am," he took my mother's hand in his to politely press his lips to the back of it, "lovely to make your acquaintance."

She looked slightly taken aback, blue eyes widening. However, Mother recovered quickly, delicately plucking her fingers from his grip to smooth at the tight bun her brown hair was currently up in before primly folding her hands together just below her waist. When she smiled, it was gracious but tight. "As it is yours," there was a briefest of pauses before she tacked on a hesitant, "Lea. Please, take a seat. Dinner should be ready shortly, but would anyone like a drink prepared while we wait?"

I was relieved to hear Lea answer with, "I'm good, thanks." Because a return of Wine Tipsy Lea was by far the very _last_ thing this situation needed right now. As I declined as well, a quick look around brought to my attention the fact that we were the only two not partaking as it seemed the others had already started before we'd gotten here. Mother and Father were sipping at what looked to be some sort of dark red cabernet, while Anna retrieved her own glass and moved towards the mini bar to refill it - most likely with something sweet, fruity and potent enough to bring down an elephant, knowing her. On the low table around which all the seats gathered was a sturdy glass full of ice and an amber liquid. Probably Grandfather's. Probably bourbon.

I shifted over towards the sofa opposite the table from my parents and all three of us took a seat at the same time. Lea joined me soon after, slipping his arm around my shoulders as he flumped down into the cushions beside me. Grandfather, however, hadn't budged from where he stood since we'd entered the room. Not one inch. "Father," was all my father said to him - partially warning, partially pleading.

Grandfather's mustache twitched again and his left eye ticked. But then he moved to sit down in the armchair in front of the bourbon, snatching up the glass and sullenly nursing it.

Dear lord, this was a nightmare. No, this was _Hell_. That had to be it - I'd died and was now in my own little corner of the Underworld specifically designed and crafted to torture me in the cruelest way possible. I could already feel the stress burning an ulcer into my stomach and no amount of Lea's fingers lightly trailing up and down my arm would calm me down.

There was no point in putting it off, right? I should just do it now. Bring up the thing that was on all of our minds but no one was talking about. You know, _the thing_. The _wedding_ thing… or rather, the whole _lack_ of the wedding thing. I should just get this over with. Rip the bandaid off. Getting it all out in the open now _had_ to be better than this. _Anything_ had to be better than this… right?

Hands fidgeting furiously in my lap and _this_ close to dislocating a finger, I licked my dry lips and managed to find my voice. "Perhaps now… we should discuss what exactly h-happened on… on my-"

"That is a topic that would be best saved for later," Father talked over me, his stern voice cutting me off. "Let us speak of other things right now."

My head rocked back at that, my forehead wrinkling. I flicked my gaze over to Grandfather briefly - who was still stewing quietly over his drink - then back to my parents. "But I thought-"

"Now's not the _time_ , Elsa," Mother insisted firmly. "This is not a discussion that will be brief, nor will it be suitable to have over dinner. Besides, your father and I will have our hands full preparing for the party tomorrow evening, so this is a conversation that will just have to wait until the day after."

A frown tugged at my lips. "You're hosting a party?"

"For Grandfather's birthday," Anna plopped down onto the sofa beside me, freshened drink in hand. "Since, ya know, it's such a huge one. The big seven-oh. The whole family is going to be there to celebrate. And I mean, the _whole_ family," she shot me a pointed look over the rim of her glass as she took a swig.

Oh. So _that's_ what she'd meant earlier by "tomorrow people."

Why couldn't she have been this articulate when she'd greeted me at the door?

Mother added, "You are, of course, invited to attend the celebration as well, Lea. I know Father would be thrilled for you to join us."

Uh-huh. Sure. Grandfather looked positively pleased as punch over there at the very prospect.

"Sounds like a blast, count me in," Lea grinned.

Alright so… the birthday soirée would be tomorrow, then The Talk™ would be the day after. Roughly two days… forty-eight hours of waiting and worrying and dreading and- oh dear, I had to wonder what the world record for longest sustained panic attack might be. Start the timer, I was about to shatter that sucker.

A hush fell over the room, with the only sound coming from the clinking of the ice in Grandfather's drink accompanied by the ticking of the ancient but well-kept longcase clock in the corner. The ticking seemed to get louder with each passing second.

After one painfully long minute, Mother was finally the one to break the silence. "So Lea," she began, her eyes intent on him, "please… tell us a little about yourself."

"Where to even begin? Lessee here." Uh oh. I didn't like that little gleam he had in his eye as he rubbed a curled finger over his chin. "Well, I guess ya could say I had the kinda childhood every lil tyke dreams about: full of joy and love and the foster system." It was probably a good thing I hadn't gotten a drink because I'd probably be choking on it right now just like my parents were with theirs. "But I mean, with a druggie dad who bought the farm and a druggie mom who split outta my life first chance she got, where else was I s'posed to go?

"As for the rest after that, let's just give ya the highlights." Now he started ticking off his fingers, "College dropout. Ride a motorcycle. In a hardcore death metal band. Smoke ten packs a day." For the love of… he did remember the part about _not_ giving my parents a heart attack, right? "Just got my thirty-day chip from AA - hey, fifth times a charm, right? Oh, I'm also a wanted felon in three different states. Wait…" he squinted one eye, pursing his lips to the left, "...make that four. Always forget about Connecticut. Which reminds me, I need to check in with my parole officer."

"He's joking!" I said quickly with a tiny, nervous laugh.

"Or am I?" he leaned forward in his seat to whisper conspiratorially, eyebrows bouncing. I pinched his arm, forcing a soft _tch_ from him. "But let's not forget the most important thing ya need to know about me: how completely," he kissed my pinky, "and totally," another one for my ring finger, "head over heels," three more, one for each word and each remaining finger, "I am for your daughter."

Alright, you need to cool your jets, cheeks. This was all just part of the show, after all.

A show that was possibly being performed a bit _too_ well. Grandfather's knuckles had gone so white around his glass, I was surprised the poor thing hadn't shattered into a million pieces yet.

Lea tapped his index to his lips now, "Hmmm, what else? Oh! Got a pretty cool story about this gnarly scar my half-brother gave me with a-"

"Anna!" I suddenly burst out, turning towards her at the same time I snagged Lea's hand, keeping him from lifting the hem of his shirt. She froze mid-sip, glancing at me out of the corner of her eyes. "What about you? What's new with _you?_ You have that new boyfriend of yours, right? What about him, will he be joining us this weekend?"

Who me? Trying to change the subject? Psh, I would never!

She winced, averting her gaze and lowering her drink as she traced a finger around the rim. "Oh jeez, my…? Well... he, er… he _was_ going to make it for dinner tonight but… _something_ … unfortunately came up! But he should _definitely_ be here in time for the party tomorrow, so… don't worry! Heh… I- oo, little cheeses!" she cried out excitedly as Gerda abruptly appeared once more to place a small platter of hors d'oeuvres on the coffee table. Anna immediately proceeded to stuff her face with them before pointing at her bulging cheeks and shaking her head, signaling she could no longer talk.

A crease formed between my eyebrows.

Huh… was it just me or was Anna acting kind of weird?

Maybe the tension around the room just had us all on edge, even her. Yeah, that was probably all it was.

"And you, Elsa?" Father's cool tone snapped my attention back to him. Each word that followed was slow and measured, as if he were picking them very carefully, "Tell us how you have been keeping yourself occupied during these past several weeks."

"Oh!" I gnawed on my lower lip, my fingers already tugging at my braid before I'd even realized it. "Well, I've… reconnected with an old friend - you remember Rayne from when I went to summer camp? Well she's married now with a baby on the way, can you imagine? And… and I've gotten myself a place to live and have found a job and-"

-and auditioned for a musical.

That was what I'd been about to tell them. However when I tried, the words got caught in my throat.

I knew they'd disapprove. That they'd probably scoff and wonder why I was still wasting my time on such childish, useless things. But it wasn't childish or useless, at least not to me. To me, the audition had been so important, had brought me so much happiness. I didn't want to give my parents the chance to belittle and ridicule it. I didn't want them to take this thing that was so special away from me.

So instead I released my braid and folded my hands in my lap, sitting up a little straighter as I simply said, "...and that's it really."

I could sense Lea's eyes on me. I think he knew what I'd purposely omitted. Thankfully, he kept his mouth shut about it.

"So… Lea…" Grandfather spoke up suddenly, his voice dangerously low and making me flinch. "I hear you're in the…" his lip curled in a slight sneer, "...pizza business? Is that right?"

Smirking back, he slouched a bit more comfortably into his seat. "That's right. I sling dough at a lil pizza joint in the local mall food court. Great place by the name of Pizza Planet… you ever been?"

His jaw clenched ever so slightly. "No, can't say that I have. But this... _Pizza Planet_ ," he said it like those were the two most offensive words in the english language, "...is that where you see yourself working for the rest of your life?"

Lea chuckled, his hand batting the air, "Nah, that'd just be silly! No, I won't be selling pizza forever." His mouth curved into a cheshire grin, "Instead I'll be selling ice cream."

"He plans to own his own business, Grandfather," I hastily clarified.

"His own business… selling ice cream," he growled, pointer finger incessantly tapping against his glass now. "And this is how you would plan to provide for and take care of my granddaughter."

"Pardon me, _Sir_ Gramps," there was a hint of an edge to Lea's voice now, despite his unwavering smile, "but I was under the impression that your granddaughter was her own person fully capable of taking care of herself."

You know that chilling, goosebump-inducing, hackles-raising energy you can feel crackling in the air right before a devastating storm strikes and ravages the land?

That was _exactly_ how it felt right now in the space between Grandfather and Lea.

Luckily, Gerda appeared in the nick of time to divert the tempest by announcing, "Dinner is ready!"

"Thank you, Gerda," Mother had stood in the blink of an eye and was already making her way over to Grandfather. "If you would be so kind as to escort me, Father?"

His hard, unblinking gaze was still on Lea and for a second it seemed like he hadn't even heard her. But at last he tore his eyes away with a harrumph and put his drink back down on the table with a sharp, audible _clink_. "Of course, my dear," he said evenly as he rose from his own chair, offering her his arm and leading her out of the room.

I turned to Anna, but before I could say anything she'd already bolted up and around the table to grab both of Father's hands in hers. "C'mon, Dad! Walk me to dinner too!" she yanked him up, startling a soft grunt out of him as he staggered to his feet. Then she was hooking her arm through his elbow and all but dragging him out of the room with her.

What the…?

...maybe Anna was just super hungry?

"I think that went really well!" Lea chirped, giving me a thumbs up.

I merely drooped my eyelids at him and said nothing.

* * *

Later that night found me in my old bedroom. I'd deduced this was where I was expected to sleep, seeing as how this was where Kai had deposited my luggage. As suspected, Lea had been set up in one of the guest rooms further down the hall, so it was just me alone in here now.

It felt odd being back in this room. Just like it'd felt odd returning to my parent's home or going back to my old condo. I don't know, I guess I just didn't feel like I... _belonged_ here anymore. Like I was some piece that everyone else was trying to force into the wrong puzzle, even though my edges didn't fit and the picture didn't match at all.

Sighing, I shifted in my chair to face the mirror on my vanity once more - this one a lot nicer than the one we'd scrounged up for my room back at the apartment I shared with Rayne and Riku, as you might imagine. Having just finished combing out my hair, I set my brush aside and my fingers idly went to work on rebraiding as my thoughts began to wander.

Dinner had ended up just being the sequel to drinks in the Marigold Room. My parents had continued to try and maintain _some_ semblance of being hospitable hosts while keeping up strained conversation. Grandfather had continued to be a seething ball of barely-held-in-check fury and I don't think he'd said more than two words for the rest of the evening. Lea had continued to… well, be _Lea_. And as for my sister…

I quite honestly had no idea what was going on with her. Maybe it was just my imagination but it seemed every time I'd tried to talk to her, something else had always gotten in the way. Like I'd open my mouth to speak but before I could so much as make a peep, she'd already engaged Mother or Father in some new topic. Or I'd ask her a question only to have her look at me, lips pursed shut against a mouth full of food and shoulders shrugging. There was even one time where all I'd said was her name before she'd accidentally knocked over her drink. At least, I _thought_ it'd been accidental… unless...

Could it be that she was... _purposely_ avoiding talking to me? Had I done something to upset her? I couldn't even begin to think what. Last I'd seen her a week ago, she'd been fine. Everything had been normal between us. What could have possibly changed since?

...maybe I was just reading too much into it. It was probably just a lot of coincidence and poor timing. In fact-

There was a knock at my door just then.

Ha! Bet you that was her now. See? Nothing to worry about, I'd just been overthinking it all. Tying off my completed braid, I rose to answer the door.

And indeed, it was a redhead that I found waiting in the corridor on the other side.

Just not the redhead I'd been expecting.

"Lea?" I frowned, both my eyebrows rising.

He snerked, "Yeesh, don't act _too_ excited to see me."

"What? No, I'm- You're just not who I-" I pressed my lips shut, heaving a small sigh through my nose. "...nevermind. What brings you here?"

"Brought ya something," he grinned and for the first time, I realized he was hiding his hands behind his back. "May I come in?"

My head tipped to the right. "Uh...sure," I opened the door wider, my bare feet stepping off to one side as I absently smoothed at my dress - the same one from dinner. Lea had arrived just before I'd been about to change for bed.

He was still in his earlier clothes as well, though he'd left behind his boots and jacket. I couldn't help but notice he hadn't taken that cute little half-tail out of his hair yet. I also couldn't help but notice the way he carefully managed to keep whatever he had behind him out of sight, even as he walked past me into the room. I closed the door and when I faced him, he hunched down to my eye level, "Ya ready?"

I crossed one hand over my abdomen and gestured with the other for him to continue.

"Ta-da!" he brought one hand forward now, revealing a little black strip lined with sharp, metal points dangling from the clasp pinched between his fingertips.

That's right. It was the spiked collar.

...whatever I'd been expecting, it hadn't been _this_.

My eyes blinked once. Then twice. "...you were serious? You actually _have_ one of those?"

"Course! What, didja think I was lying? I'm offended, madame," he hmphed, putting his free hand to his breast.

I snorted with a roll of my eyes, "Well no, not lying, but more so just joking."

"I never joke about studded leather," he waggled his eyebrows at me.

Nose crinkling, I delicately poked a finger into one of the spikes. "Alright, so why exactly are you showing me this?"

Lea smirked and shrugged. "Your curiosity just seemed so piqued when I mentioned it earlier."

I gave him a flat look. "It was not _piqued_."

"Keep telling yourself that," he chuckled then paused, eyes crinkling. "...so you wanted to know what it looked like on me, right?"

Cheeks lightly toasted now, I scowled, "I never said-"

He wrapped the thing around his neck, holding it in place with a hand instead of fastening the tiny buckle in back.

Oh.

Oh, I see.

...it was, um… hrm, it was… _interesting_.

Damn it, face, _be cool._ That goes double for you, heart! Don't go thinking I can't hear that racket you're making down there!

"Well, I guess that's one mystery solved," was all I said as I glanced away, hand coming up to cover one cheek in a vain attempt to hide the growing blush.

"Glad I could be of service," he murmured as he (mercifully) removed the collar from his throat once more.

"...why do you even own one?" I asked, hesitantly reaching for the accessory now.

He let me take it from him. "Just a relic from my pissed-off, rebellious juvenile delinquent days that I managed to dig up again recently. What a punkass lil poser I was back then, huh?" he hummed a tiny laugh as he looked down at his feet, lightly scuffing one against the carpet.

Intrigued by it now, I turned it over in my hands as he spoke before taking it over to the mirror on my vanity. "I suppose we all try to find different ways to express ourselves when we're young. Just a part of growing up and figuring out who we are," I said distractedly as I watched my reflection bring the choker up to encircle her neck, tilting her head slightly to the left with a thoughtful frown.

"Well I guess that'd make me a-" whatever quip he'd had locked and loaded was forever lost as he made a sudden strangled, choking noise.

I looked over at him sharply, brow furrowing as I lowered the spiked collar once more. "You okay? What happened?"

His fist thumped his chest as he fought for breath, which was making his face red. "N-nothing," he wheezed, rapidly shaking his head. "Just oxygen, man. That shit'll kill ya, am I right? Heh."

I squinted at him dubiously.

Lea was such a weirdo sometimes.

He averted his gaze now, rubbing at the back of his neck. "You, uh… that choker looked good on ya. Like really, really good."

"You think so?" I frowned down at where it rested in my palm before holding it out to him, "I'll just have to take your word for it."

"Keep it," he grinned, pushing my hand back towards me. "Ya never know when you'll need one for an impromptu angry goth phase."

I smiled at that, "I think I'm in the clear. Isn't that more of a teenager thing?"

"Please. Angry goth isn't an age, it's a state of mind."

"If you say so," I snorted, but put the choker down on my vanity. I had to wonder what my parents might say if they ever discovered it in here with the rest of my things.

"So," he piped up once more, pulling my attention back to him, "this is the bedroom that sweet lil El grew up in, huh?"

As I watched Lea take a few steps further in now, it suddenly occurred to me... this was the first time a boy had ever been in my bedroom. And not just any boy - this was my _crush_.

Wow… it felt so highschool when I put it that way.

To be fair though, this wasn't an experience I'd ever got to have while I was actually _in_ highschool.

Better late than never, I suppose?

I only wish it didn't make me want to squirm so much as his eyes roved over everything in here, from the big, purple, gauzy canopy bed to the embellished, oversized wardrobe and matching dresser set. From the cushy, inset bench beneath a grand window in the unique shape of a triangle to the tall, antique shelves of neatly arranged novels and DVD cases of old musicals and plays. From the small sitting area in one corner furnished with plush red chairs to the vintage Broadway posters hanging from the walls in expensive frames.

The room was not small by any means, but him being in it somehow seemed to make it shrink. Like here was this big guy that had somehow found his way into a cutesy little dollhouse room. The comparison did not make me want to fidget any less.

Trying to take my mind off it, I began, "So… earlier at drinks and dinner, did you really have to be so…" I bit down on my bottom lip, trying to find the right word. "...just so, ah…"

"So much of a grade-A jackass?" he suggested brightly. Not exactly the word I would have used, but still, I gave a slow nod and he laughed. "Remember, the whole point was for me to be a total hooligan so they didn't just think me some pushover they could boss around or scare off. Think they got that message loud and clear. 'Sides, pushing every last button of the girlfriend's folks is kinda a hallmark of being a classic bad boy."

My fingers found their way to my braid, running up and down it. "But there's a big difference between pushing a few buttons and having a deathwish."

"Aw, how sweet, you worried about lil ol' me, El?" He paused briefly in his casual perusal of my room to glance my way, flashing me that cursed dimple of his, "I'm so flattered."

I shook my head, "I just think you didn't have to go to such extremes or be quite so-"

"Gotta question for ya," he interjected, coming over to stand in front of me. "Say I had showed up on my very best behavior. The perfect gentleman, minded all my P's and Q's and was just the saintliest boyfriend to ever saint. Do you think your family would be singing my praises right about now?"

My eyes shifted about and I tried weakly, "...well… maybe if-"

"Do you truly, honestly believe that your family would _ever_ accept a white trash lil nobody like me dating their precious princess of a daughter?" he pressed quietly yet firmly.

I tucked in my lower lip, hesitating for a long moment before a tiny grimace twisted my face and I mumbled, "Probably not, no."

Lea gave a little smile that almost seemed a touch sad before he turned away once more, returning his attention to exploring the bedroom. "Thought so. I was screwed the second I so much as dared to breathe the same air as your gramps. So if they're all gonna hate my guts whether I play the part of boy scout or hoodlum, might as well go with door numeros dos and at least have some fun while I'm at it," he chuckled.

"Fine, I see your point," I crossed my arms with a frown. "But still, you might want to tone it back just a smidge. Grandfather has munny and connections. He can seriously make you disappear."

A snerk. "I'd like to see him try. I'm one tough son of a bitch to get rid of," he muttered as he neared my bed now, reaching out a hand to poke some of the draping aside as he peeked in, "Trust me, no one axes me that easily, got it memorized? He's in for one rude awakening if he thinks he can just- _gah!_ " he stumbled back in surprise, blinking a couple times before shifting the canopy again for a second look. "The fuck is that ugly lil bastard?!"

I rushed over, snatching up the stuffed plushie sitting atop my neatly made bed and hugging it close as I glared at Lea. "It's a snowman and shush, he's cute! Cuter than _you_ anyway!"

His horrified gaze darted from me to the doll and back. "Dear god, I hope not!"

Sitting down on my mattress, I spun the little guy around in my lap for a better look at him - it'd probably been at least four-some-odd years since I'd last seen the plush, after all. And okay, sure, I could admit he probably wouldn't be winning any beauty contests any time soon, but give the poor, stuffed snowman a break! I _had_ had him since I was a baby and he _had_ had to endure more than one stitch repair job, especially with what a destructive little toddler Anna had been. Despite all that, I still thought him rather handsome with a unique, quirky charm to him.

Giving Lea a flat look and hitching my chin, I said dryly, "My statement stands."

"Wow, guess it's true what they say, beauty really is in the eye of the beholder," he grumbled, narrowing his gaze on the plushie as I snuggled it close to me once more. But then one corner of his lips quirked up and he bowed down to look me in the eye, tipping his head to one side as he murmured, "Hope I at least rate a close second."

Resident cheeks be advised: flash fire warnings are now in effect.

I held my tongue and just glanced away.

The corners of his eyes crinkled as he straightened back up and shoved his hands into his pockets. "So… about that big party tomorrow…"

Thank goodness, a new topic! "What about it?"

Shrugging, Lea said, "Just wanna know what to expect."

My fingers idly stroked at the snowman's head - the fabric still felt soft after all these years, even if it had taken on more of a dull gray color by now as opposed to its original pristine, snowy white. "Well… it'll probably be held in our ballroom-"

"This small palace has a freaking _ballroom_ too?" He shook his head with a snort, "I was kidding before, but this place really _is_ just one big damn Clue board."

Rolling my eyes, I continued, "And it'll probably be packed with all our relatives. Believe me, there are a lot of us on both sides of the family. Acquaintances too. Honestly, it'll most likely all be rather boring. Just a whole lot of mingling, maybe a speech or two, and an over abundance of food accompanied by music."

"Music…" he repeated, frowning up at the ceiling now as one hand went to the nape of his neck, tugging at the little hairs there. "So that mean there'll be dancing? Like… the fancy kind?"

I cocked my head at him. "Are you worried about having to waltz?" Resting my stuffed doll against my pillows, I stood up, "I can teach you if you'd like."

He blinked at me, expression unreadable. Then, "Alright."

I stepped over to stand before him. Now that I got close, I was reminded of just how freakishly tall the man was. My stomach did a little somersault at that and I was already regretting this decision. But it was too late to turn back now. Beating the blush back, locking it up and throwing away the key, I schooled my face into seriousness.

I was going to handle this like a professional, damnit!

"It's fairly simple really, and you've probably seen more than your fair share of it in those sappy movies you like so much. Our hands come together, like this," I joined my right with his left, holding them up to one side. "While your other hand goes…" gingerly taking his wrist in my grasp, I tentatively guided his palm to rest on my hip, hoping the action didn't seem as awkward as it had felt, "...right there." Finally, I settled my left hand on his shoulder and looked up the few inches that separated us.

Big mistake.

Jeez, having eyes as green and beautiful and heart spasm-inducing as his should've been illegal!

And being surrounded by his warm, cinnamony boy scent was not helping matters one bit.

I hastily broke eye contact, opting to look down at our toes instead. Toes are nice. Toes are _safe_. "It's, uh... it's very easy. You just take steps in the shape of a square. Watch my feet and follow along, I'll go slow. Forward with your left foot first," I took a step back and he moved with me, "then to the side with your right… now bring them together… Good. Then back with your right… out with your left… and together again." I took him through it a few more times without issue. "See? Simple. You're already getting the hang of it."

"I just must have a really good teacher," he said in a low hum.

"At this rate I'll soon be the one following your lead instead of… wait," my forehead wrinkled, "...you _are_ already leading." I looked up at him suspiciously. "Did you already know how to ballroom dance?"

He smiled sheepishly, "Heh… guilty?"

"You brat, why did you tell me you didn't?" I laughed, trying to step away from him.

"I said no such thing," his hand shifted from my hip to the small of my back, not letting me escape. To be fair, I didn't try _that_ hard. "You just assumed I didn't know how. And you know what they say when you assume," he teased as he continued to lead me in our little dance.

I scoffed in spite of the upward tug I felt at one side of my mouth. "Where did you even learn to waltz?"

"My lil secret," Lea winked. "But you know the deal. I'd be willing to give it up for one o' yours."

"You want me to give you a secret?" My eyes darted to the left. "I'm not sure I even have anymore…"

He snerked, pulling me ever so slightly closer to him. "Now I know I don't believe that. You must be able to think of at least one."

...actually yes. There was… at least _one_ more I could think of…

That of certain feelings I was having for a certain redhead.

Sensing a small, familiar heat creeping up into my face, I cleared my throat and shook my head, still not meeting his gaze. "No… no I don't think so. Pretty sure I'm all tapped out."

He dipped his head down next to mine and I could feel him smirking against my ear as he whispered, "You wouldn't be lying to me now, would you?"

His warm breath tickled and I had to suppress a shiver. Conceal, don't feel. Don't let him know. I finally looked at him with a small, playful smile that I hoped didn't betray my hammering heart. "Come now… does this look like the face of someone who'd lie to you?"

Lea bit back a tiny, crooked grin as his eyes hooded, his thumb tracing small circles against the fabric of my dress. Then his lips parted, about to speak.

That was when, for the second time that night, a knock came at my door.

_That_ must be Anna. Smile widening as I continued to stare up at Lea, I called out, "Come in."

I heard it open followed by a soft, "Oh!" that caused me to pale and my feet to stumble.

That _wasn't_ the sound of my sister's voice.

My head whipped towards it as I stammered, "M-Mother!" This time when I attempted to break free of Lea's hold, he let me.

She stood there, posture perfect and hands clasped together in front of her. "Sorry, I didn't think you already had company."

"S'okay, I was just leaving," Lea said before pressing a tender kiss to my forehead. "Night," he told me, voice low as his fingers tucked some of my hair behind my ears. Apparently, he couldn't just depart without giving me one final whammy of the warm fuzzies. Jerkface. "Ma'am," he nodded to my mother as he walked past her towards my door, closing it behind him on his way out.

My gaze followed his exit before drifting over to my vanity right beside the door.

More specifically, to the spiked collar still resting on _top_ of it.

Fudge. Had I wondered what my parents' reaction would be if they ever discovered it in here? Yes. Did I particularly need to find out the answer to that little question this very night? Hell no!

Luckily Mother hadn't seemed to notice it on her way in and her back was currently to it as she said, "That young man is… quite the character."

Funny. That's what Father had said. Almost verbatim. I wondered if my parents rehearsed these things.

"He, uh…" I sidled past her, putting myself between her and the choker, blocking her line of sight to it. Then I forced an innocent smile and a weak chuckle, "...he makes me happy."

If she thought my movements strange, she was good at hiding it. "And he seems very fond of you."

"Ah… yes, I suppose so." I casually leaned back against the piece of furniture and slipped a hand behind me, discreetly moving the offending item into one of the vanity's small drawers.

Whew! Mission Hide The Goth Contraband was a success!

The small feeling of victory swiftly waned however and I frowned. "Mother, I…" I began, only to find I had no idea what to say to her.

I hadn't had any idea for years now.

It had not always not always been like this. In fact when I'd been very little, I'd felt like I could share anything and everything with her. She'd been my biggest supporter in all things, especially in my love of the performing arts. As I'd always been such a shy child, she'd gone so far as to even encourage the activity, perhaps in the hopes that it would build my confidence and make me more outgoing.

But as I'd grown older, our relationship had changed. She became more aloof and distant. I suspect she and Father had hoped my interest in theater was just a phase, one I'd grow out of eventually. But when it seemed I wasn't going to - not on my own anyway - she'd started taking a sterner approach with me. That's when she stopped being my friend. That's when it became harder to talk to her. And it'd only gotten harder and harder with time. Things were never quite the same between us after that.

She watched me now, patient for me to continue. Worrying my bottom lip between my teeth, I finally settled on, "Why are you here?"

"I would think the answer should be obvious." Her small, gentle smile caught me off guard, but not nearly as much as her now stepping forward to take both my hands in hers. "I wanted a little time alone with my daughter. Away from your father and grandfather... just the two of us."

My breath hitched, my chest constricted, and before I knew it I was blurting out, "I auditioned for a musical."

Her head reeled back slightly and I winced.

Welp. So much for not letting _that_ cat out of the bag.

I swear, mouth, I can't take you anywhere.

Waiting with bated breath, I searched her wide-eyed gaze for any clue as to what she might be thinking. Was she angry? Annoyed? Disappointed? I couldn't tell as her face gave away nothing for several long seconds. Finally though, she tipped her head to one side, "...did it go well?"

I blinked, a crease emerging between my eyebrows. "I, uh… yes, I think it did. But they won't announce casting until next week."

"I see. Well," and here she was smiling again as she leaned in closer to whisper, "we can just keep that our little secret, hm?"

...who was this woman and what had she done with Mother?

I stared at her before slowly nodding. It was all I _could_ do. Words abandoned me at the moment. I hadn't been prepared _at all_ for this.

And I was even less prepared for what came next.

Mother's gaze softened as she brought her hand up, cupping her cool fingers to my cheek. "That must have taken a lot of courage. I'm very proud of you."

My throat tightened and I swallowed past the lump I felt forming in it. I blinked away some tears, my voice hoarse as I somehow managed to get out, "Th-thank you… Mother."

Had I entered some sort of Twilight Zone? If so, I never wanted to leave.

She regarded me kindly for a second more before her expression turned to that of concern. "You look tired. Have you been sleeping well?"

Honestly, I hadn't. The last good night's rest I'd had was the unplanned sleepover in Lea's room. Every night since then was one night closer and closer to this weekend and whatever unspeakable horrors awaited me. Every night had been less and less dreams, replaced by more and more tossing and turning. I'd actually spent all of last night wide awake, just staring up at my ceiling until the sun had at last arisen.

So, naturally, my answer to Mother was, "Yes."

Her quiet _tsk_ said she didn't believe me. "Come here," she turned away, walking towards my bed and lowering herself down onto it. I hugged myself, feet rooted to the spot as I stared after her, bewildered. Sitting back against my pillows and tucking in her legs, her hand patted the spot on the mattress beside her, "Cuddle close, scooch in."

Instantly I was transported back to when I was a little girl. Back to the last time I'd heard her say those words to me. My response was automatic and before I'd realized it, I'd already curled into her side and was resting my head against her shoulder.

She started humming a familiar lullaby. One she had used to sing for me all the time when I was small. It was from my favorite musical, the same one that the song I'd sang in the tryouts had been from.

This was nice. It wouldn't put me to sleep, but still, it was... nice. Comforting. Nostalgic. Her hand was lightly stroking my arm, my hair, my cheek. Then she was trailing the tip of her pinky down the bridge of my nose slowly before bringing it back up to do it again. An old trick she'd used to use to get me to pass out. Cute. That may have worked when I was a child, but I was an adult now. There's no way it could still possibly have the same effect on me now, not in a million-

Within minutes I was out like a light.

* * *

_**Author's Note:** _ _Ah, it's finally here! The dreaded weekend with (dun dun dun)… The Parents (TM)! Elsa's spent most of the story in Lea's KH universe, now it's his turn to spend a few chapters in her Frozen world xP Let me tell you, when I was writing outline notes for this whole story, I had very little planned for this arc at first. I had a smattering of a few vague ideas, but hardly enough to fill even so much as one chapter with! But thankfully, Frozen 2 was released, coming to my rescue and giving me a whole new host of Frozen characters to include xD Then the ideas started flowing, thank goodness! Soooooo, more F2 characters to be introduced in the chapters to come! Fun Fact: Elsa's dress this chapter (complete with lil necklace) is loosely based on the dress she wears at the beginning of F2 for the Some Things Never Change song, just picture it shorter (cuz apparently I just want to do that to all her dresses) and with a maybe slightly poofier skirt._

_Thank you so much for reading, especially to those of you who have left a kudos and shared with me your thoughts and feelings on this story so far! Remember, feedback is not only welcome, but highly encouraged and super appreciated!_


	24. Chapter 24

When I awoke, Mother was gone. It made sense, seeing as how daylight was streaming in through the bedroom window now and I could hardly have expected her to stay all night with me. She'd probably left not too long after I'd nodded off.

Part of me wondered if she had ever really been there in the first place or if I had simply dreamed the whole thing up. It'd all just been so weird. Mother hadn't been that… well, _motherly_ towards me in over a decade. It was a long lost part of our relationship that I'd dearly missed, so I wouldn't have put it past my subconscious mind to cook something like that up while I was dreaming especially now that I was back in my childhood bedroom where such old memories could be sparked. But no, I was still in my dress I'd worn for dinner yesterday evening and I wouldn't have gone to bed without changing first, not unless Mother had actually been here.

But that still begged the question: why her sudden and unexpected change in behavior after all this time?

Maybe… it had something to do with the wedding? Maybe me running out on it and disappearing for weeks without a word had taken its toll on her even more so than I'd ever realized? If so, then her little visit last night had probably just been a… a moment of weakness, and a fleeting one at that. Why else would she have waited until we were away from Father's and Grandfather's prying eyes? Once we were back around them, not to mention the rest of the family, her usual mask would probably be firmly back in place again. She would be prim and proper, cold and reserved, just like she'd been for years now and it would be like those precious few moments last night had never happened.

...or maybe I was being overly pessimistic. Maybe now I had an ally in Mother where I'd previously thought to have had none. Maybe The Talk™ tomorrow wouldn't be as bad as I feared, not if I had her and Anna on my side.

But honestly, who knew? Who ever knew _anything_ really when it came to my family? I certainly didn't. Not anymore. Not for a long time.

All I could do was wait and see and hope the anxiety didn't murder me in the meantime.

I climbed out of bed, grimacing at my reflection in the vanity mirror, at what a rumpled mess my dress had become overnight. This was the second time this week I'd slept in a garment that wasn't meant to be slept in. This was dangerously on the verge of forming into a habit. I really needed to stop. Sighing, I started walking towards my luggage so I could dig out something fresh to wear. However, I was halted in my tracks by a knock at my door.

I hesitated in answering it, giving my appearance another once over in the mirror.

This time, my reflection responded with a wrinkle of her nose.

Ugh, everyone's a critic.

Ah well, there was nothing for it. No amount of hand smoothing would make this dress fit to be seen and I wasn't about to make whoever it was wait for me to change. Tossing my frazzled braid back over my shoulder, I moved towards the door and opened it just wide enough for me to poke a head out.

"Mornin', El!" Lea beamed down at me, looking far more presentable than I on day two of his whole rebel-without-a-cause aesthetic he had going on.

I smiled back with a soft, "Good morning."

Dipping into a bow, he swept a hand out to one side, "I've come to escort thee to breakfast forthwith, m'lady."

"My my, we'll make a gentleman out of you yet," I hummed a chuckle.

He scoffed with a big theatrical sniff. "My word, I say, perish the fucking thought!"

"Shoot, you were this close," I snorted with a shake of my head. "Just give me a quick minute to change."

Before I could shut the door however, he stopped me with his hand lightly snagging mine. "But why? You already look as gorgeous as ever this morning."

I stubbornly ignored the tiny flutter I felt inside my ribcage. Didn't he realize it was a bit silly to be pulling the whole googly-eyed boyfriend routine when it was just the two of us? Maybe he was just getting into character early before we went down into the dining room. I rolled my eyes, "Oh yeah, gorgeous enough to make Mother pale, Father choke, and Grandfather faint."

Smirking, Lea said, "All I'm hearing are a ton of pros and a whole lotta nada for the cons column."

My eyelids drooped but before I could reply, there was a sudden shout from down the hall, "Ah-ha! _There_ you are!" A blur zoomed towards us, attaching itself to Lea's arm.

Or rather, _her_ self, seeing as how it was Anna.

So… the prodigal sister had at last graced me with her presence.

"I _thought_ I might find you here," she grinned up at Lea, who just blinked down at her in response. Then she directed that grin my way, "Hi, Sis! Bye, Sis! Alright, big guy, let's go!" She charged off once more, dragging Lea with her. Or rather… she _tried_ to anyway. But I imagine Lea could be quite the anchor when he didn't want to move, so instead the hold she had on his elbow ended up snapping her back like a rubberband.

I quirked an eyebrow at her. "What's the rush, Anna?"

"Yeah, short stuff, where's the fire?" Lea asked.

"We gotta get you ready!" Again, she gave another tug of his arm.

Again, he didn't budge. "For…?"

"For a beautiful day out on the water," she stated as if it were obvious. We both stared at her blankly and she huffed. "We're going yachting!"

Both eyebrows shot up Lea's forehead. "We? As in you and me?"

"And Elsa," she added, stomping over to Lea's other side and pressing her shoulder into his arm, trying to shove him into moving. It was kind of like watching a chihuahua attempt to out muscle a great dane. Just as effective too. Panting from the exertion, she tacked on, "And Maren and Ryder too."

"Oh, okay," Lea nodded, then frowned. "...and Maren and Ryder would be?"

"Our cousins," I said before furrowing my brow at Anna. "Wait, they're here? Since when?"

"Since an hour ago," she grunted, still pushing all her weight against Lea and getting nowhere, her feet sliding and scraping against the carpet. "Auntie Yelena showed up early with them. Now Mom and Dad want to shoo us young'uns out of the house so we won't be in the way while this whole place is turned upside down by party prep chaos. So," she paused, red-faced and puffing for breath before brightening, "figured we could take Daddy's yacht out for a lil spin!"

Lea cocked his head, "Still don't get why you're trying t- _oof_ , hey now!" David (aka Anna) had managed to catch Goliath (aka Lea) off guard by ramming her shoulder into his side, forcing him to stagger a step. "-why you're trynta kidnap me," he finished in a grumble.

Stepping back from him, she crossed her arms and fixed him with a dull stare. "...did you pack swim shorts?"

"Well no, but I didn't know we were gonna-"

"Exactly!" she cried triumphantly, latching onto his elbow once more. "So we're gonna go borrow you some from Ryder!"

"You coulda just said that in the firs-" his words were swallowed in a yelp as she suddenly bolted, this time managing to haul Lea tripping and stumbling behind her.

"Be ready to go in fifteen minutes, Sis! Meet us in the driveway! See ya there!" Anna's voice echoed down the corridor back towards me in their wake.

I called after her, "But breakfast-"

"We'll pick something up on the way!"

...she was still acting so very strange.

Sure, she was always a ball of energy, but normally she'd let me talk more than that before making a break for it. It'd almost felt like she couldn't get away from me fast enough. I knew she'd been in a hurry, but getting Lea seaworthy hardly called for the state of emergency she was making it out to be.

Now more than ever, I was determined to get to the bottom of her odd behavior. Luckily for me, Anna had slipped up and made the error of trapping us on a boat together for the next several hours. And even if said boat was a yacht, there still weren't exactly a lot of places for her to hide from me on it.

She couldn't _possibly_ keep avoiding me there.

* * *

My mistake.

Anna very well _could_ keep avoiding me here and in fact _had_ been doing so successfully for the past hour. It was not a matter of whether or not she had places to hide so much as she just never seemed to stay still for more than ten seconds. She'd always kind of been the cartoon Tasmanian Devil given human form, but now she was that on friggin' _steroids_. Just a constant whirl of chaos that was always on the move.

"I'm flying, Jack!"

Then, of course, there was the fact that I had to put up with this dork.

I hung my head with a sigh from my position behind Lea, my hands gingerly holding his hips as he stood proudly at the bow of the yacht with his arms spread out wide to either side of him. "You know, this wasn't exactly what I had pictured when you said you wanted to reenact that one scene from _Titanic_."

He glanced over his shoulder at me with a toothy grin. "You wanna swapsies? I can let you be Rose for a bit!"

"...I'm good, thanks."

"Suit yourself! You're seriously missing out though," he shrugged, stepping down off the raised rim of the boat and onto the cushioned bench seating, using it like a staircase to get himself to the floor. The salty breeze played with his shirt on his way down - a very loose short-sleeved button-up that only had one button fastened in the middle, so peeks at his muscled torso were not uncommon and could be rather, hrm… distracting. The swim trunks he'd borrowed from my cousin were just shy of his knees and were a deep red with black silhouettes like palm trees at sunset.

His flip-flops hit the deck and he spun around, offering me a hand to help me down as well. Smiling my thanks, I gripped the wide brim of my beach hat with one hand while the other took his. My strappy sandals landed on the hardwood beside him, careful not to step on the hem of my long, strapless cover-up dress made of a thin, billowy white fabric that barely hinted at the blue two-piece I wore underneath it. It was a beachwear ensemble I'd left behind at my parents' home years ago. A good thing too since like Lea, I hadn't exactly planned for a yacht outing when packing my bags for this weekend.

"So," Lea chirped as he released my hand, "now that we've gotten that important and thoroughly pressing bit o' business outta the way, what's next on our lil agenda?"

My lips pursed to one side before I decided, "Let's try and find Anna."

Though there was really no try about it. Finding her wasn't the hard part. Getting her to stay and actually _talk_ to me was. Still, I was on a mission!

Mission Make Anna Open Up About Whatever The Heck Her Problem With Me Is.

...I really needed to get better at naming these things.

As I turned to give a quick glance around the yacht, first person I spotted was Maren - short for Honeymaren, but she hated the name with a bloody passion and did her best to bury that info in the hopes that it would never again see the light of day. She stood not far off next to the ship's mini bar under the shade of the awning. Her dark hair was pulled back into a braid and she was sporting a purple swimsuit with a matching sarong.

The thing that stood out most however were the cheap, plastic star-shaped sunglasses currently perched on the bridge of her nose. They were particularly eye catching given that, one, she hadn't had them on a moment ago and, two, they were probably just about the last things one would expect to see her wearing. She seemed just as surprised to discover them on her face as I was, given the way she removed and squinted at them with a bemused smirk.

I could hear Lea's flip-flopping footsteps following behind me as I walked towards her. Arching an eyebrow, I pointed at the things, "Where'd _those_ come from?"

"Ask Lil Miss Sunglasses Fairy over there," she laughed, popping them back on before jerking a thumb over her shoulder towards the helm. There Ryder stood manning the steering wheel in his yellow, turtle-print trunks, the sunlight gleaming off his short black hair. It looked like he too had recently received a visit from this so-called Sunglasses Fairy, for he was now (quite bewilderedly) modeling a pair of shades with big, cartoony red lips for frames.

Ah, and here the Sunglasses Fairy herself came now, her auburn pigtail braids flapping wildly about as she skipped towards us in her bright green bikini and boyshorts. Not to be left out of the latest fashion trend of her own making, Anna had on a pair herself shaped like flowers. And in her hands were-

"For you, oh dearest Sis of mine, I've saved the best for last!" she happily declared, sliding the shades with neon pink heart lenses onto my nose.

Joy.

Lea looked down at me and snerked, biting back a grin.

Boy didn't know how close he was to getting his arm pinched for such impudence.

Anna gave a small pout, "Sorry, Lea, but I only have four."

"No problemo. El and I can just share," he chuckled, stealing mine and donning them himself, waggling his eyebrows at me as he leaned back and propped his elbows against the boat railing.

Ugh, I wasn't sure what was more annoying: that he actually looked pretty good in them or the fact that he _knew_ it and was being smug about it.

"Charming," I deadpanned before looking back at Anna. "Where'd you even get these silly things from?"

"Oh, I bought them all ages ago from one of those shack shops by the dock," she tossed a hand back towards the shoreline. "I've been keeping them hidden away for a special occasion."

My head tipped to one side. "...and that special occasion would be?"

She tapped a finger to her chin, "Hmm… Ah! National Fun In The Sun Day, of course!"

I gave her a flat look. "That is neither national nor an actual holiday."

"Is too!" Her chest puffed up as she planted her fists on her hips, "I'm the captain of this here dinghy and what the captain says, goes!"

"You can't just make up holidays, that's not how captains work," I crossed my arms.

"Yeah-huh! I'm the captain and I say so!"

"But-" I stopped myself, pinching the bridge of my nose. Just let it go, Elsa, otherwise we'll just keep going around in circles like this all day. "Nevermind. I was hoping, _Captain_ , that maybe you and I could have a minute to-"

"Move over, Ryder! It's my turn to steer!"

Annnnd off she zipped again.

I had half a mind to chase after her but with the way things were going, I feared she might swan dive off the side of the yacht just to get away from me.

"What's wrong, El?" Lea frowned before taking off the heart shades and offering them to me. "Want these back? I hear rose-colored glasses make everything better."

I mustered a weak smile at that, arms hugging myself as I leaned back against the metal rail beside him and muttered, "Thanks but no thanks."

Perching the sunglasses atop his head now, he asked, "Seriously, why the long face?"

"...it's Anna," I grimaced, reaching for a tendril of my ponytail to twist between my fingers as I watched Ryder join his sister at the mini bar. They were just barely out of earshot so I couldn't hear whatever they were laughing and shaking their heads over. "She's mad at me or… something, I don't know. All I know is she won't talk to me, not really. Every time I try, something always comes up and she runs off."

Lea glanced towards where Anna stood valiantly at the helm, one hand holding the steering wheel steady while the other shielded her eyes against the sun. "Huh… now that ya mention it, it does seem like she's been avoiding you, doesn't it?"

"You've noticed it too?" So it wasn't all just in my head. Not sure if that made me feel better or worse.

"Maybe a lil," he nodded. Pushing himself off the rail, he turned to stand in front of me now. "But mad? Nah, I don't think so. She seems far too chipper for that." Lea rubbed a curled finger to his chin, "Maybe she's actually sad about something but doesn't wanna worry you so is just… trying to put on a brave front? Or she could have something important she wants to talk to you about but is too scared?"

"But that's ridiculous, Anna knows she can always talk to me about anyth-"

"Hard to starboard!" came a sudden shout from my sister before she jerked the wheel into a spin.

The yacht whipped around in a sharp turn, throwing Lea into a stumble towards me. I gasped, bringing up a hand to stop him while turning my head away and squeezing my eyes shut, waiting for impact.

But it never came.

Cracking open one eyelid then the other, I discovered he'd managed to catch himself by grabbing the railing to either side of me.

"Whew!" he grinned, looming mere inches over me, "That was close!"

...wait… my hand was still raised… and touching… _something_ …

I slowly, reluctantly lowered my gaze towards it.

Only to have my face all but burst into flames and practically blast steam out of my ears.

For behold! There, my hand, in all its brazen glory, had found its way into Lea's unbuttoned shirt and that was without a doubt a big, heaping helping of man boob it was groping right now.

...very nice, delightfully sculpted man boob. Firm yet… soft, somehow? No, soft wasn't the right word… ah, supple! Yes, that was what I-

_Now was not the time to be debating word choice!_

Not while my friggin' _hand_ was still on his bare friggin' _chest_.

Gah, what was _wrong_ with me?! I really needed to stop sexually harassing the guy who had zero interest in dating at the moment!

Okay, remain calm, Elsa. Maybe he hasn't even noticed it yet. Maybe if I just discreetly removed it, he'd never even have to know it'd been there in the first place. Alright, easy does it… careful now, just take it one small step at a time… first lift the palm off… okay, good! Now the thumb… _perfect_. And up goes the pinky… then the next one… and the next… just the index finger to go-

Oh. My. _God_. Did I just goddamn trail my fingertip down his skin?! Pretty sure I'd trailed it. No, not trailed, I'd caressed! _Caressed!_ Great. Just dandy! If he hadn't realized where my hand was before, he sure as hell knew now!

My eyes shifted about desperately.

Oh, this was uncomfortable. Quick! Do something to make it less awkward!

I looked him dead in the eye, brought up my hand and poked him in the nose with a tiny, "Boop!"

Nailed it.

Lea blinked. Then he gave a little snort, one corner of his lips curling up. "What was that?"

A clever and artful distraction, duh. One that was clearly working too, so ha!

"What do you mean, what was that?" I mumbled, hitching my chin and averting my gaze. "It was a nose boop, what else?"

His grin twitched wider. "Well, yeah, I could see that. What I meant was why?"

I couldn't help but notice he was still really close. That he still hadn't let go of the railing yet, keeping me trapped between his body and it. Clearing my throat, I said defensively, "You just have a very… boopable nose, is all."

"...is that so?" he murmured, eyes crinkling as he pressed his forehead to mine.

Dear lord, his rent-a-boyfriend act would be the death of me.

"Yo! Elsa!"

Thank goodness! Cousins to the rescue!

Closing his eyes, Lea exhaled softly before spinning around and shifting over to rest back against the steel rails beside me once more just as the two of them approached us. "Is it true?" Ryder asked excitedly, eyes bright behind the lip-glasses he'd yet to take off as he stirred his mimosa. "Do you really sell mall ice cream now?"

I winced slightly. "Oh… you know about that?"

"Avast ye landlubbers!" Anna's voice rang out again as she continued to pilot the yacht. "Weigh anchor and hoist the mizzen!"

"You kidding?" Maren snerked, taking a sip of her bloody mary and ignoring my sister. "Once the Duke found out, the whole _family_ found out. You know how that old coot loves to run his mouth to anyone who'll listen."

"So it _is_ true!" Ryder beamed. "At an Ice Palace, right? The place with that kickass reindeer mascot?"

"Um…" I furrowed my brow. He seemed oddly enthusiastic about this. "...yes?"

He pumped a fist, "Awesome! _Love_ the place! Their ice cream is _so_ good and all their commercials are hilarious! Have you seen their new one with all the reindeer singing a frigging rock ballad?"

Even with the star-shades, Maren's eye roll was plain as day. "You and your strange obsession with reindeer."

"What? They're cute!"

"Whatever, I just can't with you right now," she held up a hand in his face as she took a sip from her drink, looking at me again. "Seriously though, you ran out on your wedding, on your whole sweet cushy _life_ … just so you could sell ice cream?"

"Land ho! Thar she blows!" Anna again.

Holding onto my hat so it wouldn't blow away as the wind picked up, I frowned. "Well… that wasn't exactly _why_ I left…"

"But that's what you _did_ ," she insisted, eyebrows lifting with her tiny grin. "Do you even know about all the chaos that erupted after you turned up missing?"

I swallowed hard. I could feel Lea's fingers fiddling with a lock of my ponytail, but I hardly noticed it as I bit down on my bottom lip and shook my head. "Was it bad?"

"Aw man, the whole place went nuts after you pulled your vanishing act! You shoulda been there!" Ryder laughed before squinting skyward. "Although… I guess if you _had_ been there, none of it would have happened." He shrugged, taking a big swig of his mimosa. "Anyway, it was wild! Our family was yelling, _his_ family was yelling, a flower girl was bawling, the giant ice swan sculpture got knocked over and shattered into a bajillion pieces, a bridesmaid punched a groomsman, the-"

"Wait," I interrupted him, my eyebrows knit together as my gaze shifted over to Maren. Besides Anna, who'd been my maid of honor… "Weren't you my only bridesmaid?"

She smirked, lazily lifting a shoulder before letting it fall. "What can I say? I live for anarchy."

"Batten down the hatches! Swab the deck or it's straight to Davy Jones' locker with the lot of you!" It seemed Anna was really getting into character now.

"The _butterflies_ ," Ryder eagerly jumped back into the conversation right where he'd left off, "were released on accident at the same time the _doves_ somehow got free as well and, oh man, the carnage! It was epic!"

My hands were fidgeting with each other. I had no idea when they'd started. My chest was beginning to burn and constrict.

"I still can't believe it," Maren wrinkled her nose in glee, chewing on her straw. "You ditching a guy at the altar. _You_ , of all people. You've always been such a goody-goody. So well-behaved, so polite, so disgustingly _perfect_. Just goes to show you, I guess… it's always the sweet, innocent, quiet ones who'll surprise you."

Fidget, fidget, fidget.

It was getting harder to breathe.

"A total bloodbath!" Ryder was still going. "I mean, did you even know doves _ate_ butterflies? Cuz I didn't! But those poor little guys never even stood a chance! Tiny insect guts were flying everywhere! Seriously... Best. Wedding. _Ever_."

"Heh-hey!" Lea suddenly piped up. "Are all these swimsuits just for show or we gonna," he clicked his tongue, jerking a thumb towards the water, "dive on in?"

He was taking the attention off me. I shot him a grateful if somewhat shaky smile. His arm slipped around my shoulders, giving them a small, reassuring squeeze as he rested his cheek against my hair.

"Please," Maren sniggered, "like we'd actually swim in the _lake_."

"Watch and learn, dude," Ryder grinned as he moved over to the plush seating that circled the edge of the ship's bow and pushed a button on a panel behind its backrest. The massive, seemingly decorative circle that was etched into the center of the foredeck began to hum and slide under the rest of the floor, revealing the hot tub underneath. Striking up a finger, Ryder then pushed a second button, this one turning on the jets.

"Ooo," Lea nodded in appreciation, "a jacuzzi that appears as if by magic. My my, how the other half lives." Then he huffed out a snort through his nose, "Leave it to the rich to find a way to take a soak in the middle of a lake without actually having to get _in_ the lake."

Ryder scrunched up his face, "Lake water's gross."

Pointing at the hot tub, Lea said, "You do realize the more people get in that thing, the more it's just a boiling vat of human juices, right?"

"Thanks for that," Maren gave a mock gag before tossing her chin towards the edge of the boat. "What're you waiting for then? Lake's right there and all yours, Stretch."

"No thanks," leaving my side, Lea walked over to the ledge of the jacuzzi to dip a toe in. "Bring on the person stew! 'Sides, not every day I get to hop into a yacht hot tub. Wouldn't wanna miss out."

Setting his now empty glass down, Ryder said, "Not every day you get to _steer_ the yacht either. Whaddya say, my man, want to give it a go?" He pointed towards the helm.

As if on cue, Anna bellowed, "Ready the cannons, ye scallywags, lest we be dead in the water!"

Lea gave me a quick glance and I shrugged. He scratched the back of his head, "Uh… sure! Why not? Be right back, boo!" He planted a swift peck to my forehead before transferring his pink sunglasses back to my nose. "If ya need me, just shoot me the heart-eyes with these and me n' my boopable nose'll come running."

I huffed and shoved his shoulder, "Just try not to crash us into anything." Fighting the upward tug I felt at one side of my mouth, I added more quietly, "Have fun."

"Always do," he winked before turning to follow Ryder towards the stairs that lead to the upper deck.

"Shall we?" Maren then asked, tossing her sarong to the bench as she stepped down into the hot tub.

I hesitated, glancing over my shoulder. Normally, I wasn't self-conscious about being seen in my swimsuit. But then, normally only people who were related to me ever saw me in it. The one exception there of course being my ex, but I'd never been awkward about it in front of him either. I'd never really been… _anything_ about it. But now, oddly the idea of _Lea_ seeing me in my swimsuit, it just… well, I don't know… did weird things to my pulse and made my skin tingle. It wasn't a bad feeling, per se… I wasn't quite sure _what_ it was really.

In any case, the boys looked to be engrossed in a heated debate with Anna currently. It seemed the self-proclaimed captain wasn't quite ready to give up her post at the wheel yet. None of those three were even looking this way.

"...alright," I said at last, slipping out of my cover-up and letting it fall to the deck. Putting my hat down on top of the small pile of fabric as well, I lowered one foot in into the water, followed by the other before hastily taking a seat, letting the bubbling warmth engulf me up to my shoulders.

Stretching and luxuriating in the jacuzzi, Maren's glass dangled between her fingertips as she idly swirled about what was left of her bloody mary inside it. "I can see why you did it."

A crease formed between my eyebrows as I gave her a sideward glance. "Did what?"

"Got the hell outta Dodge before the first note of _Here Comes the Bride_ could even chime out the organ," she smirked, sticking the straw into the corner of her mouth.

My lips pinched. "I thought you'd already established it was to sell ice cream," I grumbled, lifting the sunglasses to sit atop my hair now since the absurd heart lenses were already fogging over from all the steam.

She gave an amused scoff, setting her empty glass down on the rim of the hot tub. "I said that's _what_ you did, but we both know that wasn't _why_. Not unless _ice cream_ is roughly six foot seven, has green eyes to die for, and is rocking a smokin' hot bod."

"Oh…" I cleared my throat. Was my face turning red? Psh, that was just the jacuzzi. I think heat was cranked up a little _too_ high in here, in fact. Yeah, that had to be it. I laughed nervously, "What can say I? He just, er… stole my heart."

Atta girl, way to sell the lie.

...that... _was_ a lie… right?

What am I saying, of course it was! All I had was a crush. A simple, meaningless crush, nothing more.

Anna had finally retreated to the mini bar where she was sulking as she mixed herself a drink, so Ryder had set Lea up at the wheel, who was nodding at everything he was told. Maren removed her star-shades, gently biting down on one of the earpieces as her eyes drifted towards the helm. I wasn't particularly a fan of that sly little curve to her lips as she watched him. "Mmm, I bet that's not _all_ he stole."

A small, incredulous splutter escaped me. " _Maren_ ," I scolded, splashing some water at her.

She snerked. "All I'm saying is I don't blame you. I myself would've given up a Prince Charming fiancé worth his weight in gold and risked any claim to my family fortune, all for one steamy summer fling with that hunky pizza boy over there."

Okay fine, no use denying it anymore. This thing my face was doing? _Definitely_ a blush. "Don't you have a girlfriend?" I muttered, eyes darting about.

"Sure do and she is my world, my moon and my stars, my everything!" she beamed. Then her eyebrows bounced, "Still… doesn't mean I can't admire the view every once and awhile."

"Well stop admiring," I harrumphed, narrowing my gaze down at the frothy water.

"That's adorable! You really do like this one, don't you," she cooed, pinching my cheek. I just rolled my eyes and swat her hand away. "Hope you weren't too attached to your hat, by the way."

"My…?" I blinked. "Why?"

She pointed, "Cuz there it goes."

Sure enough, a gust of wind had come along to scoop it up and carry it off, only to let it plummet once it'd escaped the confines of the yacht.

"Cap overboard!" Ryder called out, cupping a hand to his mouth.

"I'll get it!" Lea grinned, already kicking off his flip-flops. Before any of us could react, he took off running, launching himself up onto the guard rail and diving into the waters below.

I inhaled sharply as I shot up to my feet. "Your boy is crazy!" Ryder was cackling as he steadied the abandoned steering wheel and shut off the ship engine. Maren whooped and clapped while a giggling Anna rushed to the edge, leaning over the metal bars to look for him.

I just hoped that big dummy didn't get knocked unconscious by the rudder cracking his skull open or something! All over a stupid _sun hat,_ no less!

Thankfully, it wasn't long before Anna was throwing up her hands and cheering, which I took to be a good sign as I released the breath I'd been holding. Next thing I knew, Lea came rising up the ladder attached to the side of the boat, wet hair slicked back and the brim of my cap between his teeth so his hands were free for climbing. Clearing the last few rungs, he hopped onto the deck and grabbed the hat out of his mouth, hissing, "Shit, that water's cold! Brr, nearly froze my ass off!"

...or at least, I _think_ he'd said something like that.

It was hard to be sure really. My eardrums seemed to be on the fritz while all my focus now directed itself towards his shirt. His sopping, soaking wet shirt. It was clinging to the chiseled contours of his abs in a way that was rather, ah… _fascinating_. Not to mention see-through. Yes, very, _very_ much so. It was actually kind of beautiful, in a way. Majestic, really. Quite the sight to behold and-

-and fudge, I was _staring._

Staring at him, who was staring at me.

Me, who was still standing in the jacuzzi and flaunting my two-piece like I was the friggin' star of _Baywatch_.

I sat back down so fast, water splashed over onto the deck behind me. Yes, oh blessed jacuzzi bubbles, cloak me in your warm, protective embrace. Face heated and eyes not quite able to meet his, I stammered out a quick, "Th-thank you."

"Of… of course! Happy to!" Lea said brightly. Huh… was he getting a bit of a sunburn? He started to walk forward with a goofy, lopsided grin, holding the hat out towards me, "Here ya g-"

Apparently misjudging where the ledge of the hot tub was, he stumbled head first into it with us. I jolted in my seat and Maren half shrieked, half laughed as water exploded everywhere. As soon as he resurfaced and was coughing up water, I asked, "Are you okay?!"

"Fine! Nothing bruised 'cept my pride. Wanna smooch it all better?" he snickered, leaning in close and making loud kissy noises. Eyelids drooping, I just put my hand on his face and shoved him away. Still chuckling, he once more offered me my now thoroughly drenched hat. "Believe this is yours, m'lady?"

I hid a smile behind my fingers. "My hero," I said dryly, taking it from him and setting it aside on the hardwood once more. Surely it was too waterlogged at this point to fly off again.

"Yoink," he plucked the heart-shades off me so he could wear them himself once more. "Mind if I join you gals?" he chirped, standing up in the jacuzzi to remove his soggy shirt. I did my best not to ogle him this time.

The same couldn't be said for Maren as she smirked up at him. "Would seem you already have, Slim."

He cocked an eyebrow at her as he took a seat at my side. Then he was bending towards me, muttering in a low voice, "Uh… should I be nervous about the way your cousin is looking at me?"

I snorted, turning and leaning in close so I could return the whisper into his ear, "Ignore her." Lea seemed to give a small shiver, but that wouldn't make sense. It was very hot in this jacuzzi, so I must have been mistaken. "She has a girlfriend."

"Did, uh…" he cleared his throat, "did anyone tell _her_ that?"

"Don't worry. Apparently she's just admiring the view," I said, one corner of my mouth twitching up.

His eyes crinkled behind those pink lenses. "Good. Woulda hated to break her heart otherwise, seeing as how I'm already deliriously happy in a loving, committed relationship with the bewitching creature sitting next to me," he slipped one arm to rest along the edge of the hot tub behind me while taking my hand in his other one so he could bring it up out of the water and press his lips to my knuckles.

_Click!_

I glanced up at the sound to see Anna crouching down next to the jacuzzi, holding her phone up with the camera pointed towards us. "D'aww, what a great picture! You two are such _cuties!_ " she squealed, looking down at her screen as her fingers swiped across it.

Lea had lowered our hands back down to rest underwater once more, his fingers interweaved with mine now. Which was a little silly, come to think of it, as no one could possibly be seeing us holding hands through all these bubbles. Perhaps he didn't realize that. Then again, I wasn't exactly rushing to take my hand back either.

Anna was still gushing, "Seriously, I'm becoming diabetic from sweetness overload h-"

" _Cannonball!_ "

Maren's head shot up and she snarled, "Ryder, no! This is a _hot tub_ , not a-"

Suddenly a big blur was hitting the water, sending a huge blast of water in all directions for the second time. Anna yelped, shielding her mobile with her body while the rest of us just did our best to block the mini tidal wave with our hands. It was amazing that there was any liquid still left in here with us by now.

"Wahoo!" Ryder cried out as he popped back up, bouncing with his hands high over his head in triumph. It was short lived however as his sister punched him in the gut and he doubled over with a grunt.

"Bonehead!" she scowled at him as she relaxed back into her seat. "You could've broken your dumb neck."

"And my phone!" Anna added as she gave said device a careful lookover.

"Whatever, you're all just jelly cuz you didn't think to do it yourselves first." He fished around in the water for his lip-shades that had fallen off before perching them on his head and taking a seat as he looked to Lea, "Hella cool, am I right? Up top!" He held up his hand. Lea just shrugged and obliged him with a high-five.

Maren sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Boys. Ugh."

Seemingly satisfied that no damage had come to her phone, Anna plopped down onto the ledge of the jacuzzi now and let her feet dangle in the water. "Pic of my fave cousin," she singsonged, snapping a shot of Maren tipping her sunglasses down and holding two fingers up in the peace sign. "And one of my _idiot_ cousin," she deadpanned, pointing it at Ryder now who just crossed his eyes and razzed his tongue at her. Giggling, she then turned the phone camera back towards Lea and me. "I want a couple more of you guys! Go on, smoosh in, you two!"

...who me?

Awkward penguin, nervous wreck, ball of raw friggin' nerves _me?_ "Smoosh" in with a _guy?_ While we were both only in swimsuits and thus at least a good seventy-five percent _naked?_ _Smoosh?!_ I didn't even know how to smoosh! I'd never smooshed a day in my life!

Did my sister know me but at all?

She did remember Lea and I were only _pretend_ dating, right?

I narrowed my gaze one her. "...excuse me?"

"You heard me," she said sweetly, a wicked gleam in her eyes as she tipped her head forward, smirking over those flower-glasses. "Snuggle in, Sis."

Oh-ho, that evil brat knew _exactly_ what she was doing.

Fine. If I gave her this and let her have her fun, maybe she'd finally open up to me about whatever it was that'd been bothering her.

So I scooched an inch over towards Lea.

"Closer," Anna said, staring at her phone screen as she pointed the camera at us again and waved me over with her free hand.

A tiny huff in my throat and another inch over. My knee was brushing against his now.

Anna groaned, "Come _on_ , closer! You two like each other, right?!"

Lea gave a sheepish laugh, scratching his cheek and whispering, "El, forget it, you don't hafta-"

"It's fine," I muttered under my breath, hard eyes still on Anna as I reached over my shoulder and closed my fingers around Lea's wrist resting behind my head there. Hesitating briefly as my face began to warm uncomfortably and the thudding in my ears grew louder, I finally tugged the arm down to wrap around my bare shoulders and leaned into his chest slightly.

"Ugh, _closer!_ "

One of my eyes ticked. "Anna, any closer and I'll be sitting in his lap. Is _that_ what you want?"

She smiled impishly, "I mean, if you think it'll help…"

Lea's hushed voice came to me again, "El, really, this isn't-"

"Lea, really, it's _fine_ ," I insisted through grit teeth.

Alright, Anna, you want closer? I'll give you closer, you little...

I twisted in my seat, hugged my arms around his neck and yanked him down, pressing our cheeks together. Not to mention our chests. Our very wet, scantily-to-not-at-all clad chests. But I tried not to think about that part. My cheeks were frying enough as it was already. His whole body went rigid against mine before slowly relaxing as I felt his arms tighten around me. "Here, Anna," I snapped, "take the stupid picture!"

Hold this pose any longer and my heart might just shatter a rib with the way it was thundering.

Still there was no click. She frowned, "Aw, c'mon, Sis, give us a smile! You're in wub, after all!"

...that's it, I was going to throttle her.

"Gotcha covered!" Lea announced. I'd barely even had a chance to register his words before he'd removed his cheek from mine only to replace it with his lips and blow a loud raspberry. All my tension immediately banished and a surprised laugh erupted out of me as I tried to wriggle free, but not before-

_Click!_

"Perfect!" Anna bit back a grin as she eyed the photo on her phone.

Lea had a cheeky grin of his own that he was shooting my way. Though my eyes glared, my lips smiled as I gave his arm a shove, which did nothing to erase his smug look. Before I could retract my hand however, he'd snatched it up in his so he could lace our fingers together once more. At least this time it was above the water for everyone to see.

Now that that bit of nonsense was over and done with, perhaps Anna would give me a minute to talk to her while she was still distracted by riding her photography high. I saw Maren poking a finger into her brother's cheek as she teased him about something, so our cousins probably wouldn't miss us if we slipped away for a second or two. Sitting up straighter and taking a deep breath, I began, "Anna, perhaps now you and I could have a-"

"Oopsie, looks like I need a refill!" she trilled, swiping up her glass from where it sat on the deck beside her.

I squinted at it. "...it's still mostly full."

"Check again." She downed the whole thing in one big gulp before puffing out a satisfied, "Ha! Be right back!"

_Whoosh!_

Gone again.

With a long, drawn out sigh, I slouched so low into the jacuzzi now, the foamy surface brushed against my chin. I could see Lea frowning at me out of my peripheral, but he remained quiet, probably just as much at a loss with this whole mystery situation with my sister as I was.

My eyes gradually drifted over to the mini bar where I could see her mixing up some new concoction. However, instead of the upbeat glow she usually had about her, I noticed her shoulders sagging a little. She was worrying her lower lip between her teeth, the corners of her mouth turned down. I couldn't see her eyes behind the sunglasses, but her brow was wrinkled, seemingly lost in thought as she hung her head.

Huh… that didn't look like someone who was mad.

Maybe Lea was right. Maybe there really _was_ something that had her sad or scared.

But what could it possibly be?

And why wouldn't she just _tell_ me?

* * *

_**Author's Note:** _ _Yay for some yacht fun! Cuz that's just what rich people do I suppose xD Again, since I'm not sure if all of ya'll have seen Frozen 2, the new characters introduced this chapter (including the briefly mentioned Yelena) were all from that movie as a buncha people called the Northuldra who live in an enchanted forest. Since in F2 it was revealed Elsa's mom was Northuldra, there is a VERY real possibility that Honeymaren and Ryder really are all canonically related to Elsa and Anna in some way, so I figured hey, why not turn them into her cousins in this? Now if only Ryder had gotten to see Kristoff's talking reindeer Sven plushie routine, I think Ryder would have positively exploded with happiness xD Real talk tho, boys and girls... don't pull a Ryder: do NOT cannonball into a jacuzzi._

_Thank you so much for reading, especially to those of you who have left a kudos and shared with me your thoughts and feelings on this story so far! Remember, feedback is not only welcome, but highly encouraged and super appreciated!_


	25. Chapter 25

Feet? Pacing a hole in the floor.

Teeth? Chewing my thumbnail to the bloody nub.

Hair? Down and in open rebellion, unwilling to be braided even if its very life depended on it.

Door? Rapping with a soft knock from the other side.

Probably should go answer it.

Crossing my bedroom, I threw it open to find Lea standing there. I frowned up at him and said in complete and totally one hundred percent seriousness, "Let's run away together, right here, right now."

"Guh…" he blinked down at me, eyes wide, face seemingly still a bit red from all that sun he'd gotten out on the yacht earlier today. "...uh-huh, yeah, okay."

"Good!" I spun around and walked away, leaving the door open behind me for him to come in. Wringing my hands together and eyes darting about wildly, I went on, "We're going to need snickerdoodles. Lots of them."

"Snickerdoodles. Sure," he said slowly as I heard the door click shut. "Quick question: Why?"

My dress swished about my knees as my pacing resumed and my trembling fingers went back to my hair, once more trying to braid it. "They're Kai's favorite. Obviously."

"Oh obviously," he nodded, standing off to one side, hands on his hips as his eyes followed me, back and forth, back and forth. "Remind me again, Kai is…?"

"The butler. Keep up." My braid snagged. It was all wrong. I furiously tugged my hair free and started over again. "He'll be the first to come looking for us, so we need to take him out."

Lea pursed his lips to one side, eyes squinting. "...with snickerdoodles. A butler's one weakness. Like a moth to the flame, powerless to resist."

I stopped in my tracks, narrowing my eyes up at him. "...are you making fun of me?"

"Who, me? No, I would never!"

Holding him with my scowl for a second more, I at last relented with a nod and a huff before going back to patrolling the length of the rug. "Good. This is very, _very_ serious business and is not to be taken lightly."

"Absolutely, the _most_ serious," he agreed in earnest. "So the snickerdoodles…?"

"Will be used to leave a trail like breadcrumbs to lure Kai into my wardrobe where we'll then knock him unconscious, tie him up and lock him inside, giving us a good head start before anyone else realizes we're gone."

He was rubbing a curled finger over his lips, doing his damnedest to keep a straight face. "Right, sure, sure. It's so clear now, I dunno why I didn't think of it myself. I mean, c'mon, it's the only _sane_ thing to do."

"Exactly!" No, no, that braid wouldn't do at all, it was a crooked mess! Growling, I yanked it out and started over yet again. "Then we can escape out my window. There's no trellis or anything to climb, but the drop's not far. Only thirty, maybe forty feet."

"Psh," his hand batted the air, "that all? No sweat."

"Then we can just hop in your car and- _gah!_ " Seriously, what was wrong with my hair?! Why wouldn't it braid?! Was it _broken?!_ I snarled, raking my clawed fingers through it over and over again, threatening to rip every last damn strand from the very roots and-

"Woah there, easy now," Lea said calmly, catching my hands in his and forcing them to be still. His firm grip was warm and soothing. "Why don't we just take a breather for a sec, huh?"

Glaring down at my feet, I just answered with a noncommittal shrug. Good enough for him, it seemed, for he was now guiding me over to my bed where he took a seat on the edge, drawing me down to sit beside him. Still holding my hands and tracing light circles along their backs with his thumbs, he tucked one leg up beneath him so he could turn to better face me.

"Now before ya rip yourself bald, why don'tcha just leave your hair to me while you tell me all about whatever it is that has you ready to book it for the hills?" Setting my hands down in my lap, he started to bring his up but they faltered midway towards my face, fingers curling slightly. "...may I?" he asked quietly.

I hesitated for a heartbeat before giving a single nod and turning away from him, sweeping my pale platinum locks back over my shoulder. There was a brief pause before I felt it. His long fingers stroking my hair, slow and gentle as they combed through it, carefully smoothing out whatever tangles I'd worked it into in my anxiety and frustration. It made my scalp tingle pleasantly and my eyes fluttered half closed.

"So talk to me. What's up?" I heard him ask.

His breathing, low and soft behind me, had a comforting rhythm to it and I swear I could feel a faint warmth radiating from his nearness. It settled my nerves somewhat as the nice little tugs and shifts to my hair continued. Tucking in my lower lip, I muttered, "I don't think I can do this anymore."

"Do what?" he pressed gently.

"Any of it!" I blurted out with a grimace. "My parents. The _talk_ with them. This… this unbearable _wait_ for the talk with them. My grandfather. The silent, angry death rays he keeps shooting out his eyes at me." The words were tumbling out of me faster and faster. "Anna. The way she won't talk to me. Why won't she _talk_ to me?! What could possibly be wrong? What could I have possibly done? And then- and then there's the _party!_ It's going to be a nightmare! A disaster, a-"

"Shh, it'll be okay." His voice was tender. Just hearing it loosened the knots in my stomach somewhat and eased my shallow breathing. His hands continued to thread my hair and I felt the bend of his finger brush against the base of my neck, causing a weird feeling to creep up my spine and making me shiver. His hands stilled momentarily, but then they set about their task once more, his tone even softer now, "Just… one lil party. Nothing to worry about. No big deal."

I puffed out a shaky breath, "But it is a _big_ deal! Because it'll be a _big_ party! Huge! Ginormous! So many people are going to be there, and I don't _do_ people. I don't, I just… I can't! And these aren't just any people. Oh no, these are my _relatives._ Relatives who were at my _wedding_. You know, the one that didn't happen because I snuck out a window? They're all going to be staring at me and… and talking- no, _whispering_ about me and treating me like some sort of, I don't know… _freak_ show. And just… what does one even _wear_ when they're the friggin' social pariah of the soirée? What do they do with their hair? Their stupid, _stupid_ hair that won't even-"

"Breathe," Lea told me.

A command, but a gentle one at that.

I scrunched up my face, but inhaled deeply and held it for a few seconds, closing my eyes and instead focusing on the sensation of his hands in my hair. Why was I even letting him do this? I hadn't even questioned it. But... it really _was_ quite… _pleasing_ , I'll give it that. I couldn't remember the last time I'd let someone touch it like this. Surely, not since I was a child. Surely, it'd been nice then too, but not quite like this. Not in the same way. This… I couldn't quite put a name to this… to the small tickle of a feeling blossoming inside my chest…

Sensing I had relaxed somewhat, he spoke again, "First of all, your hair's not stupid. In fact, pretty sure it has a PHD and graduated valedictorian. And I already told ya I got you covered in the hair department, so just put that outta your head, 'kay? Don't even think about it. Second of all, you'll wear whatever the hell you want to this dumb party and look like the goddamn belle of the ball and if anyone tries to talk shit, I'll knock their teeth out, got it?"

That earned him a tiny snerk from me.

"We don't even have to stay long," he said as his delightful ministrations to my hair continued. "We'll drop in, make an appearance, give gramps his birthday spankings or whatever, then ditch the place. Third of all, your sister will talk to you when she's ready. All you can do is let her know you're there for her. Fourth of all, your gramps and those lil death glares of his? Can go fuck themselves. Fifth of all-"

"How many more of these 'of alls' do you have?" I felt one corner of my mouth quirk.

"Shush, I'm on a roll here. Now where was I...? Ah! Fifth of all, this talk with your folks? That's all it is: a talk. Just words. They have no power over you, not anymore. And I'll be there to back you up the whole time. Anna too, I'm sure. No matter what's going on with her, she knows you need her. And if you don't like what your folks have to say and if they won't listen to you, then that's it. We can just leave. End of story."

I rolled my eyes with a flat, "Simple as that, huh?"

"Simple as that," he murmured, sounding a little distracted by his task. "Sixth of all… hm… never mind, there is no sixth of all. Covered everything with the first five. Any questions?"

My nose crinkled as I bit back a grin. "...would you really knock one of my relative's teeth out?"

"In a heartbeat. Send those pearly whites flying so high n' fast, they'd be like shooting stars across a night sky."

I pressed my folded fingers to my lips, muffling a little laugh. "Well, I suppose brutally assaulting other guests is certainly one excuse for ducking out of the party early."

"Good point," I could hear the smirk in his voice. "I'll keep that in my back pocket in case of emergency."

Just then, another knock came at my door. Gosh, I certainly was popular lately. I don't think I'd ever had so many visitors to my bedroom as I'd had over the past two days. I stood up to go answer it, hearing what suspiciously sounded like a small, almost inaudible sigh from Lea as my hair slipped free of his grasp.

Pulling the door open, I smiled when I saw who it was. "Mattias. It's been too long."

The man was tall and had friendly brown eyes lined with faint crows feet. His hair was short, frizzy and black that was just starting to show the first signs of greying, with a matching goatee to frame his grin. Bending at the waist into a tiny half bow, he greeted, "Little Miss Elsa. My, how you've grown."

Smile widening, I turned to find Lea had joined me at my side. "Lea, this is Mattias. He works for my grandfather." I actually had no idea what Mattias's exact job title was. Was he Grandfather's personal assistant? His bodyguard? His driver? His privately owned assassin? Okay, I was just joking about the last one… I think. Maybe he was all of the above. Or maybe none and he was actually something even more secretive and mysterious. All I knew was that Mattias had been under Grandfather's employ since I was very little and whatever it was he did or didn't do, he'd always treated me with nothing but kindness.

"Ah," Mattias breathed as his gaze shifted to Lea, eyes crinkling as he offered his hand, "and you must be the new paramour I've been hearing so much about."

Lea shook it, one side of his mouth twitching up. "All good things, I'm sure."

"All… verbose and fervent things said with great gusto," he tactfully replied.

"They usually are when it's me those things are about," Lea snorted.

Tipping my head to one side as I regarded Mattias, I asked, "Was there something you needed of me?"

His hands clasped behind his back. "I was actually looking to borrow your young gentleman here with regards to tonight's festivities."

"Oof, sorry man, I'm flattered, but already got a date for the evening," Lea said as he slid an arm around my shoulders.

"He's funny," Mattias declared brightly. "No wonder your grandfather is so… _opinionated_ about him. But no, I meant I'm here to take you out in preparation for the ball."

Lea cocked an eyebrow. "...oh! You mean 'take out' as in get me snazzy new duds so I can get all dolled up for this lil shindig?"

Mattias's face fell suddenly stoic as an eerie calm came over him, "Or 'take out' as in make you disappear, never to be seen or heard from again." His hushed words were punctuated with a long, uncomfortable stretch of silence where I began to wonder if I actually hadn't been too far off with my assassin guess. But then he abruptly burst out into booming laughter, making both Lea and me jump. "I'm just kidding! My wife Halima says I need to lighten up and joke around more." Now he seemed to become a bit bashful as he asked hopefully, "How am I doing?"

I exchanged a brief glance with Lea, who then gave a weak chuckle. "Great! You'll have 'em all rolling on the floor during amateur hour at the comedy club." Reaching for the doorknob, he slowly started pushing it shut between Mattias and us as he called out a chipper, "Now, I'm just gonna close this for a real quick sec here, be right back!" As soon as it clicked shut, Lea gripped my arm as he hissed, "Do _not_ under _any_ circumstance leave me alone with that guy!"

Scoffing, I crossed my arms, "You're being silly, he's a very sweet man."

"Oh yeah, seems real nice for a psychopathic killer who could probably murder me seven different ways with a Tootsie Roll."

"He said he was _kidding_."

"Precisely what someone trynta off me would say," he muttered, glowering at my door.

My eyelids drooped, "Also precisely what someone who _wasn't_ trying to off you would say. Besides, it's a good thing Grandfather sent him to assist you with this. I was so busy stressing out about myself, I completely forgot you probably had nothing to wear for tonight. What would you have even done, just shown up in jeans and a t-shirt?" I shook my head in amusement.

To that he just looked down, scratching a spot behind his ear with a soft, "Heh."

I stared blankly at him. "Oh my god, that's exactly what you were going to do."

"In my defense, it was gonna be one _classy_ t-shirt."

"...the kind with a cartoon tux printed on the front?"

He grinned big, "Yeah! How'd you know?"

My finger pinched the bridge of my nose as I released a grumbling sigh. "Just go with Mattias so you can get fitted for a nice suit. _Please_."

"What about you?" he reached over, lightly rubbing my arm. "You all good now?"

"I'm… better now," I hugged myself with a small nod. "...you always seem to know just what to say to help calm me down. Thank you." I turned away, heading towards my vanity, "And thanks for-" I stopped as I looked in the mirror, my hand going to my blonde strands. My reflection frowned back at me. "Wait… you didn't even do anything with my hair." I narrowed my eyes on him, "Were you just playing with it this whole time?"

"Er…" he grinned innocently, rubbing at the nape of his neck and averting his gaze. "...no?" I fixed him with a dull look. "Seriously! I braided it!" One of my eyebrows arched. "Then I… _un_ braided it. But only to try a few other things with it, honest! Purely for research purposes! And it all led me to one conclusion. The results are in and it's unanimous: you should wear your hair," he rapped his fingers along the edge of my vanity in a drumroll, "down!"

I tilted my head slightly to the left. "...down?"

"Mm-hm! It's simple! It's bold! It's-"

Once again, a knock sounded at my door. "You two _do_ remember I'm still waiting out here... right?" came Mattias's muffled voice from the other side.

With a tiny huff in my throat, I started pushing Lea back towards the door. "Will you just go with him already? He won't kill you, I promise."

"Fine, but if ya haven't heard from me in an hour, you come and rescue my sorry ass, got it? Oh, and El?" he dug in his heels, stopping us both as he brought his hands up to squeeze my shoulders with a smile. "About tonight, just… you do you. Whatever makes ya comfortable. Forget about what anyone else might say or think, 'kay?"

I stared back at him, searching his eyes for a second before looking away as I bit down into my bottom lip. "...I'll try."

Seemingly satisfied with that, Lea reached out to twist the doorknob and pull, greeting Mattias with, "Alright, cowboy, let's get this over with." Trailing his fingers down my arms to my hands, he took them both in his and raised them to press a kiss to each one, murmuring, "Until this evening, min kjæreste."

...I really shouldn't be surprised at this point that he had yet to run out of pet names.

I'd have to ask him what _that_ one meant later.

Which, you know, was a totally crucial and vital piece of info to have before adding it to the ever growing mountainous stack of vetoes.

With that, he stepped out into the hallway where Mattias grinned and gave him a hearty slap on the back, forcing a grunt out of Lea as he closed the door behind him. I snorted quietly before moving back over to my vanity mirror, absently running my fingers through my hair as I stared at my reflection once more.

...down, huh?

...I think I could make that work.

* * *

"Well, well… don't you look a vision?"

"Thank you, Mattias," I smiled softly, resisting the urge to self-consciously hide behind my bedroom door. "You're looking rather dashing yourself."

He stood a little straighter, his hand smoothing the crisp lapel of his suit. "I do what I can. And I got your young man looking quite dapper as well, if I do say so myself."

"Speaking of, where is Lea?" I looked about the corridor, but it only further confirmed that Mattias had come to greet me at my door alone.

"I left him to await you in the foyer." He offered me his arm, "Shall I escort you, my dear?"

Taking a quick glance back into my room to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything, I then nodded and closed the door behind me as I stepped out into the hallway, tucking my hand into his elbow. "Please. Lead the way." As we began to walk, I told him, "Thank you, by the way. For getting Lea ready and presentable for the evening."

"Was only doing as your grandfather asked of me," he brushed off. "I suspect he doesn't want him drawing anymore undue attention to himself than absolutely necessary."

I hummed a small laugh at that, "I think that may be a lost cause there."

He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, grin widening. "...that boy of yours really won't stand a chance, you know. He'll be a goner the second he lays eyes on you."

"Stop, you're embarrassing me," I ducked my head to hide the faint blush creeping into my face as my fingers idly twisted at my diamond fringe earrings. Wearing them may have been a bad idea in retrospect as they were too tempting to fidget with in moments of anxiety. They dangled all the way down to my shoulders, which were bare in my floor length, high neck halter dress that was backless and a shade of midnight blue with subtle shimmers in the bodice - another garment that, like my beachwear, had just been left behind to gather dust in my wardrobe here long ago. My hair was sideswept, cascading down in loose curls in front of my right shoulder.

"If memory serves," Mattias was saying conversationally, "I don't believe you ever went to such lengths to look even half so stunning for your last suitor."

My face grew hotter as I muttered, "You must be mistaken."

Why would I put any more effort into my appearance for tonight than I had any other previous outings that had been with my ex? I had no reason to. Not for Lea. Not for the guy who was only a friend and merely just pretend dating me as a favor to help me out of a tight spot. Of course, Mattias wasn't privy to that last bit.

"Perhaps," he said lightly, falling silent for a few steps. Then, "Or perhaps it is just another small piece to the big mystery surrounding why he is your suitor no more."

The corners of my lips turned down. "...he and I weren't right, Mattias. This life, this world," I gestured to the expensive dress I was wearing, to the mansion walls around us, "...none of it was right. Not for me, anyway. I tried to pretend it was, tried to play the part for years. But I couldn't, not anymore. That's why I had to leave." I hesitated, eyes downcast. "I… don't really know what _is_ right for me. I'm still trying to work that part out… but I feel like I'm much closer to figuring it out now than I ever was before when I was only living to please my parents."

He didn't respond right away, seeming to ponder my words for a moment. At last, he glanced over at me with a warm smile. "My father used to have a saying: Just when you think you found your way, life will throw you on a new path. Don't give up, take it one step at a time and just do the next right thing." Mattias pat my fingers curled around his arm, "It may take a while, but I know you'll sort it all out. You're now on the path you were meant to be on. In time, I'm sure your family will understand that as well."

I returned his smile with a tiny one of my own. "I hope so… thank you, Mattias."

"Of course, my dear." We at last came to a halt at the top of the stairs. "Now I leave you in the care of your gentleman caller who should be just at the foot of the-" he faltered mid-sentence as he looked down into the foyer, eyes growing round. Then he heaved a sigh, dragging a hand down his face as he grumbled, "...I swear he wasn't like this when I left a moment ago."

I followed his gaze to spot Lea on the bottom step. He was leaning with one elbow propped against the banister, eyes lowered as he inspected his (still pristine) black nail polish, so he hadn't noticed us yet. His hair was pulled back into a ponytail and he was wearing what looked to be a very nice black tux, so he should have made quite the debonair picture. Key word: _should_. However, his tie was undone and draped loose around his neck, his suit jacket was off and slung over his shoulder by his free hand, and the sleeves of his white button-up were rolled up to his elbows.

The cherry on top? Brace yourself, because there were actually two. The first was there was a small white stick poking out of the corner of his mouth as he sucked on something. Was that a lollipop? Pretty sure it was a lollipop. A friggin' _lollipop_. Why? Just… why? As for the second, I'll give you a few hints: they were pink, made of cheap plastic, perched on the bridge of one's nose, and utterly ridiculous. That's right: the heart sunglasses were back, making their encore performance on Lea's face.

Somehow, I got the feeling Grandfather would not be amused.

Just a hunch.

"Good luck with that," Mattias told me under his breath with a low snort as he walked off, presumably to go on ahead to the party.

My eyes fell on Lea once more, my fingers coming up to brush along my grin before I started to descend the stairs. "No," was all I said, though a laugh bubbled out of me before I could stop it.

He glanced up at the sound of my voice, eyebrows bouncing as he smirked around the lollipop, surely with some cocky wisecrack just at the tip of his tongue. Instead however his gaze met mine and he froze, his eyes widening as all that came out was a, "Nnn…?"

I think he might have been trying to echo my 'no' there. But apparently a two-letter word was one more letter than he could currently handle.

I reached him, stopping on the step just above the one on which he stood. Fighting my grin now, I lifted my hands to remove the heart-shades and folded them shut. Then I held them up before his nose as I reiterated a firm but gentle, "No."

Lea just continued to stare at me, lollipop dangling from his slack-jawed gape and _this_ close to falling out. "Nnn…"

My, how articulate he was this evening.

With a small huff through my nose, I set the glasses aside on the banister. Then I reached to take hold of the ends of his tie, flipping them up in front of his face with another, "No." With that, I set to work tying it for him. To be blunt, I actually kind of hated that I knew how to do this. It was just such an archaic and outdated practice, the woman fixing the tie for the man. But someone had to do it and part of me suspected Lea wouldn't even have the first clue how.

I could sense his eyes on me as I folded and looped the strip of fabric. I did my best to ignore it along with the heat I could feel creeping up the back of my neck now. What didn't help was when his hand slowly drifted up to start toying with the curled tips of my hair. Hitching my chin and stubbornly avoiding his gaze as I put all my focus into the tie, I murmured, "You know, you can quit it with the goofy lovestruck act. Mattias is gone, there's no one here to see it."

Coiling a pale tendril around his finger, he didn't speak right away and for a second I wondered if he had even heard me. Then came a hushed, "...you're beautiful..."

My heart jolted and my grip faltered, fumbling the tie and screwing it up. My eyes darted up to meet his, which were soft but also mixed with… _something_ that was too intense and I quickly looked away again. With a little scowl, I started over with his tie, muttering, "Fine then, keep it up. See if I care." Hastily finishing the bowtie in silence, I hazarded a second, more cautious glance back up at him, frowning now. "...wow, you really fried out there on the yacht today, didn't you? Ever hear of sunscreen?" I asked, reaching a hand up for one of his super red cheeks.

He snatched it just as my fingertips had barely brushed along his skin. Then he blinked, finally knocking it off with the dazed routine as he released my hand so he could instead rub at the nape of his neck with a small chuckle. "Nah, I… I'm fine. I think it's just something funny with the, uh… the _lighting_ in here, making me look burned when I'm really not. Yeah, that must be it!"

I gave him a dubious squint before looking down at my palm. Odd… I looked just as pale as ever under this light. Shrugging it off, I then stretched a hand out once more, this time to pluck the lollipop from his lips, accompanying it with yet another, "No." I caught a whiff of a very familiar scent and both eyebrows shot up my forehead as I looked at the candy. Then I held it up to him, "Is _this_ why you smell like cinnamon all the time?"

His head rocked back slightly, one corner of his lips slowly turning up. "And how, pray tell, are you so intimately aware of what I smell like?"

My shoulders stiffened as just about every last bit of blood I had in me rushed straight up to my face. "I… well, I wouldn't say I'm _intimately-_ I mean, that is... well, you're always _hugging_ me and just, you know… i-it's kind of hard not to- It's not like I'm _trying_ to- Not on _purpose_ anyway, it just sort of… I just…"

The wicked curve to his lips widened further. "Yes? Do go on."

I narrowed my eyes on him. "Nevermind. Where did this thing even come from?" I asked, scrunching my nose up at the lollipop before looking for somewhere to get rid of it. I settled on tossing it into one of the two large urns decorating either side of the base of the staircase. Shh, no one would ever have to know.

He shrugged, still not wiping that stupid grin off his face. "We stopped at a place on the way to the tux fitting."

"And Mattias let you? He should've known better," I sighed, now tugging one of his sleeves down to his wrist with a tad more force than necessary and buttoning it.

"What can I say? I can be very persuasive."

I just gave a noncommittal "hm" as I straightened and fastened the other sleeve as well. Then I snagged his folded jacket from where he held it slung over his shoulder, lifting it with one more lightly chiding, "No." I began helping him shrug back into it.

A little _tsk_ escaped him. "You're certainly a fan of that word right now."

Concentrating on getting his left arm into the other sleeve, I deadpanned, "And you're certainly a fan of finding every way imaginable to make me say it."

He snerked at that. Then, "Huh. Guess there's a first time for everything. Usually the ladies are trynta take the clothes _off_ me, not the other way around."

My gaze snapped up to meet his with every intention of giving him the full blast of my withering stare. Instead I froze, expression blank at the sight that greeted me.

That of a lollipop stick once more jutting out the side of his tiny smirk.

I blinked. Then looked to the urn. Then back at him. My eyelids drooped. "Just how many of those do you have?"

His smile stretched from ear to ear. "Picked me up a whole pack! Gotta feed the addiction!"

I sighed, shaking my head before eyeing him up and down with a frown. "...where are you even hiding them all?"

Lea bent forward, the tip of his nose brushing against mine as his eyes hooded and he whispered, "Care to search me and find out?"

An icy grin pulled at my lips and I told him, "No." There's that word again. Confiscating this lollipop as well, I struck it up in front of his face and continued on in a deadly sweet tone, "If I catch you with another one of these tonight, I'll make you choke on it."

"You promise?" he waggled his eyebrows at me.

I scoffed, flinging the candy into the other urn. There. Now my parents had a matching set. My attention returned to Lea as I tipped my head to one side, giving him a final glance over now that I had him all put back together. "...you actually clean up rather handsomely. You know, when you're not being a total clown."

"Hadta do it," he puffed up his chest and tweaked his bowtie. "If you had been struck by the full might of my studliness in a tux right from the get go, you would've straight up swooned and come toppling down the stairs. Hadta ease ya into it for your own safety. You're welcome."

"How thoughtful," I rolled my eyes with a soft snort. Then I retrieved the heart-glasses from the banister once more, slipping them into a pocket on the inside of his jacket. "Now I'm giving these back to you since I know they're your new favorite toy and I'm _trusting_ you not to put them back on at the party, okay?"

"Scout's honor," he chirped, holding up three fingers pressed together.

"Good," I smiled, straightening his lapels and smoothing my hand over his button-up to clear any creases. "Your shenanigans the other night in front of my parents and grandfather were one thing, but this party is something else entirely. You can't just-"

"El," he interrupted me, bringing his hand up. I almost thought it was going for my cheek, but it seemed to hesitate and shift over at the last second, giving my shoulder a squeeze instead. "I'll be on my best behavior. Count on it."

I nodded. "...thank you." I realized my hands were still smoothing, even though any wrinkles there may have been in his shirt were long gone.

Jesus criminy, Elsa, stop pawing at the man's chest already!

Quickly retracting my hands, I cleared my throat as my smile turned a touch awkward. "Right. So then… to the party?"

"Absolutely," he grinned, taking my hand and tucking it into the crook of his arm. He then led me down the last couple of steps and over to a corridor off on the left, striding with confidence.

I followed him wordlessly for a few steps. Then, "Do you have any idea where you're going?"

"Not a damn clue!" he said brightly.

With a tiny laugh, I informed him, "It's back the other way."

"Going the other way!" he announced, flipping us into a u-turn and marching off in the opposite direction.

Once we were on the right course, it wasn't hard for Lea to figure out where the ballroom was. He just had to follow the sound of the classic string music and murmur of voices drifting from the party. It wasn't long before we were approaching a massive set of double doors beyond which all the merrymaking could be spotted in glimpses.

That's when I started to hear it. The blood rushing in my ears. Every step closer to that entrance made my insides shrivel tighter and tighter, my breathing more rapid and shallow. Just outside the threshold, my feet stopped moving altogether.

Lea halted beside me, looking over at me in concern. He brought up his other hand to cover my own that was clutching at his arm, not saying anything. I didn't need him to. I just needed a minute to steel myself. Closing my eyes, I forced air into my lungs in one long, slow inhale through my nose. Then I released it just as gradually, feeling my nerves settle somewhat.

Was I ready for this?

No. Not even close.

But this was about as ready as I was ever going to get.

I looked up at him with a small nod. With that, we made our way inside.

* * *

_**Author's Note:** _ _I was originally going to put this build-up to the party AND the party itself all in the same chapter, but it just got TOO long for a single chapter - and that's coming from ME of all people, so that's saying something! So hope ya'll don't mind this slightly shorter update chocked full of fluff xP Anyhoo, Mattias made his cameo this chapter, yay! He was one of my faves from F2, such a sweetheart with his own moments of awkwardness :3 Minor fun fact: I had just finished playing TWEWY for the first time before I started writing this chapter and had been introduced to Koki - a character in that game that's basically an Axel-clone, at least in the sense that he's a redheaded kinda-sorta villain that's bursting at the seams with snark… guess which TWEWY character turned out to be fave xD Anyway, Koki is never seen without a lollipop the whole time, so the stupid thing with the lollipop this chapter got its inspiration from that xP Other minor fun fact: Elsa's dress is very, VERY loosely based on her dress from the Olaf's Frozen Adventure short - just get rid of the fur, sleeves, and back and turn it into a halter top and presto! Beautiful xD Also, her hairstyle is based off of some early Elsa concept art by Brittney Lee for the first Frozen movie and I just think the art is gorgeous and I had to use the hairstyle cuz oof… Ice Queen is pretty, yo!_

_Thank you so much for reading, especially to those of you who have left a kudos and shared with me your thoughts and feelings on this story so far! Remember, feedback is not only welcome, but highly encouraged and super appreciated!_


	26. Chapter 26

We stepped into the ballroom together and everything was just as grand and impressive as I'd remembered it. The room was immense, stretching two stories high with giant, elaborate gold and crystal chandeliers hanging from the embellished ceiling. Majestic columns lined the east and west sides of the room, with heavy red velvet curtains draped between each one, currently tied back to reveal the long banquet tables of food behind them. The celebration was already in full swing and the place was just simply packed with family and acquaintances I recognized, each guest dressed more fancy and sophisticated than the last as they all mingled or took a turn about the dance floor.

Or at least, that's what they all _had_ been doing before Lea and I had made our entrance. Maybe it was just my imagination… maybe I was just being paranoid… but I _swear_ the whole place suddenly went very still, all chatter dying down to a muted undertone as it felt like every last eye in the room turned toward me.

My chest seized and I swallowed hard, taking a tiny step back.

This was a mistake. I couldn't do this. I couldn't be here. I couldn't-

"Crabclaw?"

I twitched at Lea's low voice right next to my ear. My eyebrows knit together and I turned a quizzical look towards him. What… Was he asking if I wanted hors d'oeuvres? ...no, I don't think they were even serving crab tonight. I frowned, mulling it over for another second before squinting at him. "...is this you trying to whisper sweet nothings to me again?"

He chuckled, "Please. You'll _know_ when I'm laying some sweet sweet nothings on you. Nah, I was just taking another crack at it."

"Crack at…?" I cocked my head with a frown. Crabclaw…? Come to think of it, something about it was prickling at the back of my brain. Now why did that sound so…"Oh!" Realization struck. "My favorite ice cream?"

"Yup!" he tapped his nose. Then his lips pursed to the left with a small hum before he was shaking his head. "But that's not it either. Seafood in ice cream? Blech! You're adventurous, but that's a lil _too_ out there, even for me."

My brow furrowed. "...you think I'm adventurous?"

Did I miss something? Was today Opposite Day?

"Course!" he grinned. My face scrunched up in pure disbelief and he laughed. "Well let's check the scoreboard here. You ran out on your wedding and everything ya knew to start a new life from nothing. You followed a devilishly handsome stranger," he jerked a thumb into his chest with a smirk, "up a decrepit old clocktower. You jumped last minute into open auditions for a musical with barely any preparation or practice." Lea shrugged, "Seems to me there's at least some small part of you that's attracted to the unknown. Ergo: adventurous!"

I looked away with a tiny scowl. "I think you mean ergo: stupid."

"Eh. To-may-to, to-mah-to. No true adventure is complete without a healthy dose of stupidity thrown into the mix anyhow. Lil pearl o' wisdom for ya there, courtesy of yours truly," he beamed.

"Such sagely advice," I snorted before my face softened. "...thanks, Lea. I… think I'm ready to do this now."

"But you already are."

With a start, I realized we were walking. _Had_ been walking. I hadn't even noticed when we'd begun. Those big double doors were long behind us now as we weaved our way further into the crowd. No one seemed to be looking at us anymore. I suspected they had only gotten more discreet about it.

"Oh, look, there's the birthday boy now," Lea gestured with his chin towards where my grandfather stood not too far off, greeting and shaking hands with a couple that'd arrived just before us. He was looking a lot warmer and friendlier than I'd seen him all weekend. Then again, Grandfather had always been very good at putting on a cordial mask for the public. Lea asked, "Shall we go give the ol' boy our best wishes?"

I gnawed on my lower lip for a second before sighing, "Alright."

Might as well get this over with.

We made our way over just as Grandfather was finishing up with those guests. As if sensing our approach, he turned to face us and immediately went very still. However, his poker face was in top form this evening for it betrayed nothing as he just stared at us impassively and waited.

"Grandfather…" I paused, floundering a bit under his scrutiny. But then I took a deep breath, forced a tremulous smile and simply said, "Happy birthday." Releasing Lea's arm, I stepped forward and got on tiptoes to plant a swift peck to Grandfather's cheek, just as I'd done for all his birthday's before. Just as if everything were normal, even though they were very much not.

He answered with a stiff nod and a polite smile that did not quite reach his eyes. "Thank you, my dear."

Retrieving my hand to once more fold into his elbow, Lea piped up, "Happy birthday, Sir!" I preemptively winced, waiting for the surely inevitable 'Gramps' that always followed. However, it never came. I stared at him in stunned silence. Pretty sure Grandfather was doing the same. Amazing… perhaps Lea actually _could_ take things seriously when he really- "Wow, seventy huh? Keeping it _tight_ , big guy! I mean, hell, it's gotta be more candle than cake at this point! But man oh man, you're still pretty spry for a dude your-"

"Enjoy your evening, Grandfather!" I said quickly, turning to make a hasty exit and yanking Lea along with me. Once we had put a safe distance behind us, I shot a tiny glare up at him.

"What? I was complimenting him!" Lea defended himself. I gave him a flat look and he snerked, "Hey now, I told ya I would be on my _best_ behavior. No one ever said anything about my best being any _good_."

I huffed quietly, one side of my mouth twitching up. "Fair point."

"So then," he pulled us aside, stopping next to one of the columns as he grinned down at me. "We've put in our appearance. Did what we set out to do. We came, we conquered. Wanna split?"

A small laugh hummed in my throat. "As lovely as that sounds, we can't leave already. We've only been here a few minutes. I appreciate you trying to get us out of here as soon as possible for my sake, but I'm doing okay at the moment. I can last a little while longer."

His grin ticked wider as his hand rose to gently brush a strand of hair off my cheek. "Okay then. Whaddya say to a lil jaunt about the room then?"

"A 'jaunt' you say?" I cracked a smile at that. "My, sounds fancy."

"Babe, ya got me in a tux for this. Damn right I'm gonna be fancy. C'mon, you can point out all your relatives to me as we go, tell me all their deep, dark, icky secrets they don't want anyone to know about." His hand drifted down behind me, slowing to hover over my lower back as he looked to me in silent question.

I hesitated for a heartbeat before giving him a nod. Then I felt his warm hand pressing to the bare skin at the small of my back as he guided us into a walk once more. Suppressing a little shiver as we went, my eyes scanned the crowd for faces of interest.

Everyone was still doing it. Watching Lea and me. I could no longer _see_ them doing it, but I could still _feel_ it. All those eyes following us as we went. And really, I couldn't blame them for it. Hardly six weeks ago I'd broken off my engagement in the most public and humiliating way possible to my ex, his family, _and_ my family… and now here I was, parading my new "boyfriend" around my grandfather's birthday celebration as if everything were fine and dandy and like I didn't have a care in the world. This seemed inappropriate. Callous. I wouldn't have even done it if my parents hadn't all but insisted… why? Why were they putting me through this? They must have had a goal, an objective behind it all, I just had yet to fathom what it could possibly be.

Trying to take my mind off the swirling questions, not to mention off the ever growing numbness in my knees from anxiety, I focused harder on searching the room. "Hm… ah!" I pointed, "See that man over there? In the wheelchair with the wild poofy hair?"

His gaze followed my finger. "Talking 'bout that mummified corpse they wheeled in? Ya mean that thing's _alive?_ "

I pinched his arm. "Be nice, he's very old. Anna and I have called him Grandpabbie ever since we were little. He's Grandfather's father."

"Shit, that's not old, that's _ancient_. Have ya ever asked him what it was like, growing up in the freaking Stone Age?" He snorted as I swat his shoulder. "Seriously though, how many years we talking here?"

A crease formed between my eyebrows, "...I don't really know actually. Honestly, I'm not sure _anyone_ remembers anymore, possibly not even Grandfather. Certainly not Grandpabbie himself, he's sadly not really all there these days," I grimaced as we moved on before my eyes landed on another pair of people who were peering in our direction. "And there's the Duke by that painting over there."

"Ah yes, the Duke. Still reeling from the pleasure of the last time we met," Lea waggled his fingers in a teeny wave towards my uncle. Even from all the way across the ballroom, we could see him agitatedly puff out his mustache as he stuck his big nose up high into the air and looked away. "I think he likes me."

"Oh yes, he's positively tickled by you," I said dryly. "That woman he's talking to is Yelena."

Recognition flickered in Lea's eyes. "Right, Anna mentioned her showing up with your cousins this morning. She's your aunt?"

"She's _Mother's_ aunt, my great aunt," I corrected as I observed her. She was studying us both currently with a slight frown and a calculating look in her eye. "She's… strict. Solemn. Very stern and proud. But I think she always means well."

Lea scoffed, "Boriiiing! C'mon, where's all the juicy dirt on these people? Looking for the primo, blackmail-worthy shit here."

My feet came to a stop once more as I half chuckled, half sighed. "Sorry, there just isn't any dirt _to_ share. My family is rather unexciting in general."

"Nah," his hand shifted over to my hip now, pulling me in to nestle up against his side, "they're rich. And the rich _always_ got some nasty skeletons hidden away in their closets, just gotta know where to look."

"If you say so," I muttered, face warming slightly as I leaned my cheek against his chest. It just felt natural. I mean, it's what a girlfriend _should_ do, right? Listening to the low, soothing rhythm of his heartbeat, I cast another glance around. "...oh, there's Mattias. See the woman he's dancing with?"

"Ya mean the one he looks all twitterpated over?" Lea murmured as his hand came up to fiddle with a few of my curled locks.

Nodding, I said, "That's his wife Halima. I've known her since before I can even remember. She's very sweet."

"Mm," was his only acknowledgement to that, fingers still twirling the pale strands between them.

I went on, "She always made the best macaroons… Ah! Here's some dirt for you," I whispered conspiratorially. "Her secret ingredient? Baby applesauce."

"...mm-hm," he hummed softly as I felt him press a kiss into my hair.

Pushing away from him now, I narrowed my eyes up at him, "Hey, are you even listening to me right now?"

"Wha-? I-" he stammered, sheepishly scratching a spot behind his ear before laughing. "Course I am!"

I turned my head slightly, giving him some side-eye. "Really? Then what's the last thing I said?"

He shrugged and smirked, "That Halima's the one in the wheelchair."

A traitorous snort escaped me despite myself. "Oh, you think you're funny, don't you?"

"I'm a goddamn riot and you know it. In fact-" his words suddenly cut off as his gaze landed on something past me. "Uh oh. Inbound, six o'clock."

I turned to see what he was talking about. It took me a second before I spotted them: the Duke and Aunt Yelena making their way through the crowd, beelining straight for us.

Oh goodie. This should be fun.

"Ah!" Uncle Weselton declared as they closed the distance to join us. "Here's the young mongrel-" he forced a loud, exaggerated cough into his fist, " _ahem_ , I mean young _man_ now. Elsa's new consort…" he sniffed and glared down his bespectacled nose at Lea. Or at least he tried to but seemed to be having some difficulty, seeing as how Lea towered at least a good foot over him. "...I believe… _Lou_ , was it?"

He flashed a toothy grin back. "Lea, actually, but that's alright. Names _can_ be tough to remember, especially the single syllable ones and _especially_ at your rather… _distinguished_ age." The Duke bristled, huffing under his breath something along the lines of 'the audacity' but remained otherwise mute. Turning his attention to the other person who'd joined us, Lea held out a hand towards her, "And you must be Aunt Yelena. We were just talking about you a sec ago. Pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Yelena's face was unreadable, neither cold nor warm as she considered the hand offered to her for a few seconds. At last she took it with a curt, business-like shake but didn't release it right away. No, instead she turned it slightly so she could have a better look at his fingernails. More specifically, at the black painted to them. Her only visible reaction was to arch one silver brow.

"...charmed, I'm sure," she stated evenly in that flat, no-nonsense voice she always seemed to have as she finally let him go. Then her eyes turned to me and she bowed her head slightly, "Elsa. You're looking well this evening."

I ducked my head quickly to return the greeting. "Yes, as… as do you."

Turning her sharp gaze on Lea once more, Yelena began, "So tell me, young man… how did you and my niece meet?"

Wasting no time, I see. Diving _straight_ on into the interrogation.

Just keep your cool, Elsa. We'd already worked out the details to this story, so everything should be fine.

...so then why was there this uneasy feeling churning in the pit of my stomach?

"It was 'bout a year ago," Lea was saying, his hand reaching for mine and lacing our fingers together. "Met on a train and struck up a delightful lil conversation with her."

"I was on my way back to Traverse Town from Corona," I tacked on. "You remember that trip Anna and I took last summer, Aunt Yelena."

Her eyes flicked slowly back and forth between us and I noticed there was now the barest hint of a downward pull to her lips. Settling her gaze back on Lea, she remarked, "And you thought it would be okay to seduce and corrupt a young, innocent woman in a long-term, committed relationship who was engaged to soon be married?"

It wasn't said like an accusation, merely a dry statement of fact. Still the sheer bluntness of it seemed to catch Lea off guard as he stiffened, stammering, "I- uh, heh… well, ya see-"

"And you," she turned those flinty eyes on me now. "You gave little to no thought as to the impropriety and dangers of a girl of your means and station consorting with some strange man you'd just met on public transport."

Again, there was no harshness to it, no criticism but more just a… _curiosity_. And again, it struck like a blow to the gut, only this time to me. "Ah… Aunt Yelena, it… it was just a harmless chat on the train…" I said, fidgeting with one of my earrings.

"Outrageous!" barked the Duke, startling a flinch out of me.

Yelena's gaze narrowed on him briefly before returning to me with a harrumph. "Harmless, you say… tell that to the fiancé you left standing at the altar."

Ouch.

Sighing deep in her throat, she looked up at Lea. "Please. Go on."

He blinked and echoed, "Go…?"

"I presume there's more to this than a chance encounter on a railcar. Continue," she insisted dully.

"Oh! Right! Er…" he gave a nervous laugh, scratching the back of his head as his eyes darted about. Interestingly enough, Aunt Yelena was the first and _only_ member of my family so far who seemed to give him pause and think twice about snarking her. "...well, there… _may_ have also been a, heh… romantic, late-night stroll round town?" It came out sounding more like a question, almost as if he'd be willing to change his answer if she didn't like it.

She held him with a long, hard stare. Then she was addressing me, still with that ever-present monotone, "You mean to tell me you took your sister to stay out all hours of the night, wandering an unfamiliar town with some mystery man you'd only just met?"

"Disgraceful!" Uncle Weselton snarled, swishing his bushy mustache to and fro. Yelena shot him another not so subtly veiled glower out of the corner of her eye.

Ignoring him, I squared my shoulders and told her, "No, don't be ridiculous, of course not!" However, I was quick to deflate as I nibbled at my lower lip. "Anna wasn't there. It was just me... alone with the mystery man… roaming the streets and back alleys of a city I was unaccustomed to… all night long… straight through to morning…"

Great. Thanks a lot, mouth. Way to make that all sound _so_ much better.

"Deplorable!" was the Duke's deep and insightful commentary this time. Yelena just remained stoically silent.

Pulse beginning to thud loudly in my ears, I licked my dry lips and tried, "It… it actually wasn't as untoward as it- wait, let me start over… you see, there were these floating lights- _lanterns!_ That's what they… what they're called. That's when- on the train, we... " I screwed my eyes shut. My throat was closing up. I pushed past it, "...let's see… there was a… a park, and… a f-ferris wheel… a café with a belly dancer- wait, no, palm reader! ...or p-poet… was it? _Lamppost!_ Almost forgot! Earlier, there was a lamppost! That Lea, he… just bam! Right into… actually, now that I think about it, that part isn't really… all that important to the-"

"Annnnnd that's enough storytime for now!" Lea suddenly chimed in, interrupting the absolute trainwreck that was spewing forth from my lips. Thank _god_. "If you'll 'scuse us, I promised my lady fair a spin 'bout the dance floor." I felt his palm at the small of my back once more, steering me away from my aunt and uncle.

The Duke blustered nonsensically for a few breaths before snapping, "Listen, you, you, _you-_ we're in the middle of a discussion here! You can't just walk _off_ , you-"

"Watch us," came Lea's dangerously chipper response as he led me away.

"Well, I never! Of all the rude, abhorrent, insufferable, _belligerent-_ "

"If you don't have anything of substance to add to a conversation, could you _please_ kindly cram a sock in it, Weselton?" I heard Aunt Yelena cut him off dryly. Her eyes remained trained on us as we went, her expression blank as ever. Eventually she turned to walk away, leaving a spluttering and blotchy-faced Duke behind in her wake who eventually stormed off.

...was _this_ why my parents had requested Lea and I attend? Were they _purposely_ putting my shame out in the open and on display so it could be met with censure and rebuke? Were they trying to teach me a lesson of sorts? ...or maybe it was more like a punishment. Disciplining me for disappointing them. For being so thoughtless and selfish. Showing me that there were consequences for my actions.

I pulled myself from my musings, only just now realizing that we'd stopped moving. Lea had come to stand in front of me, taking both my hands in his. Brow furrowing, I glanced about to see that we were surrounded by other couples twirling gracefully in time with the melody of the nearby string quartet. My eyes widened, "Oh, we're really…? That wasn't just an excuse? To get away from…" I trailed off, frowning. I could still feel all those eyes. All that judgement. All that disapproval. My hands pulled free of his and I hugged myself, feeling all my muscles beginning to tighten and lock up. "No. This isn't right, we shouldn't do this. People are staring."

"So?" he said softly as his hands found mine again and held them to his chest, tugging me a step closer. "Let them stare."

I looked down, eyes shifting about frantically. "But-"

"Forget them. Don't even give 'em a second thought. They're not important." He hooked a finger under my chin, gently lifting my gaze to meet his. "Just focus on me, 'kay? You and me. We're all that matter right now."

Part of me still wanted to argue, but the words were getting stuck in my throat. So instead I swallowed hard, gave a small reluctant nod, and did just that. I focused on him. On those mesmerizing green eyes of his. On his winged guyliner that he'd still elected to don in all its swoopy glory, even here, to this ball of all places. On his warm smile that was starting to melt away some of that tension inside of me bit by bit.

He was drawing me closer now, pulling my hands up to clasp together behind his neck. Shaking my head, I managed to find my voice enough to mutter, "This is not how a couple is supposed to waltz, you know."

That infamous dimple of his emerged. "This is how _we_ waltz," came his low reply as his arms encircled my waist, hands coming to rest at the exposed small of my back once more. This time, I couldn't hold back the tiny shiver.

"...this could be considered quite scandalous really," I told him, fighting the impudent little tug I felt at the corner of my lips as Lea started to turn us in slow circles. "I suspect that even now the Duke is watching us, stewing and steaming and _this_ close to blowing his combover sky high."

"All the more reason to be doing it," his eyes crinkled as he lowered his forehead to mine.

He was doing it again. Giving me that look. The soft yet intense look. The look that made my insides a little wobbly. The boyfriend look. He was so good at it. As well he should be, he certainly practiced it enough, even at times when it was just the two of us with no one else around. I suspected he probably had trained and perfected it in front of his mirror at home. It was… _potent_ , to say the least. And just not fair, really. My ex had never looked at me this way, so it wasn't something I was used to. I didn't know how to deal with being the target of such a stare. I didn't know how to process. It was overwhelming… _confusing…_

...ugh, get a grip, Elsa! It wasn't even real! He was just an actor playing a part for the masses around us.

Still… knowing that didn't exactly make this any easier…

Quick! Distraction time! Find something to talk about!

I gave a weak chuckle, "So… I'm royally awful at the whole talking thing, huh?"

Interesting tactic. Starting a conversation by pointing out how bad you are at conversations. I like it. It's gutsy.

"Dunno 'bout that, you do just fine with me," he grinned, not removing his forehead. "But if ya mean what happened back there with your aunt and uncle, heh… maybe you should just leave the chitchat to me for the rest of the evening."

"Probably for the best," I agreed. "But I had to give it a shot at least once. I have to learn to stand up for myself eventually, you won't always be around to fight my battles for me."

His smile faltered a fraction. "...El, I always got your back. No matter what our fake relationship status is, I'm always gonna be there for you, got it? I'm not going anywhere."

There they were again. The warm fuzzies, marching right on in like a parade with banners waving and trumpets blaring. "Thanks, Lea… I'll probably need it. My family can be quite persistent and stubborn, especially when they think they're only doing what's best for me."

Lea shrugged, "Well, no one ever said the fantabulous emancipation of one Elsa Fryse was gonna be easy."

"Don't I know it," a sigh escaped me. Then a tiny, wistful smile pulled at the edge of my lips. "...we should have ran away when we had the chance. Maybe we still can. It's not too late."

"Mm, don't tempt me," he smirked as his hold around my waist tightened, hugging me closer still. I just hummed a soft laugh at that. His gaze became half-lidded as he continued to watch me. Then he cleared his throat, "So, uh… I've been thinking…"

I wrinkled my nose with a snort. "Uh oh."

"Hey now, hear me out. You wanna send a message to your folks, right? Tell 'em they can't boss you around anymore, that your ex is gone for good and that I'm here to stay, so they can take all their controlling bullshit and shove it up their hoity-toity posteriors, right?"

Biting back a grin, I said, "Not quite how I would have phrased it but… yes, more or less I suppose."

"Well I may have a way to do just that. Send a message, loud and clear, big and bold as a giant, flashing neon sign. All we gotta do is kinda, sorta break one of our guidelines we set up at the beginning of all of this. Not so much _break_ though… more like bend. _Nudge_ it, really, into a nice easy curve," he explained as the ballroom kept gradually spinning around us.

One of my eyebrows quirked. "Oh? And which guideline would that be?"

There was a tiny glimmer dancing in his eyes now. "...let me kiss you."

I snerked and shook my head. Impressively, his forehead still managed to remain connected to mine. "You kiss me all the time."

"No," the tip of his nose tickled mine, his breath warming my lips as he murmured, "I mean let me _kiss_ you."

...oh…

...actually, no, I still wasn't quite sure what he was trying to-

_Oh!_

Wait, no... I mean, he couldn't be- That wasn't what he- Not _that_ , certainly not! He didn't- He would never… He couldn't _possibly_ mean…

"...as in on the _mouth?_ " suddenly came blurting out of me.

No way. There was just _no_ way. He wouldn't-

"Mm-hm," he nodded with a sly little grin.

Oh. Well then, my mistake. Apparently he _would_.

...ah! This was a joke! He was just messing with me again! That _had_ to be it! Alright, fine then, let's play along.

I breathed a feeble laugh, "And you really think that would get my parents to back off for good?"

"Well, I think it's at least worth a shot!" His grin twitched wider, "So...?"

"So…" I squinted at him uncertainly. Then I blinked. "...what, you mean right now?"

"No time like the present!" Lea chirped.

"But _here?_ In front of all these people?" This was a joke. A prank. That's all it was. A game of chicken to see who would wimp out and veer away first.

"Exactly! What better way to make a statement. A declaration, one that your whole family wouldn't be able to ignore. We could go all out too," his eyebrows waggled. "Give 'em on hell of a show. I could shove you up against one of those columns over there, or throw you on a table and just really go to town on you."

Now I _know_ he was kidding. He was being absolutely ridiculous. With a little huff of a laugh, I said, "Oh wow, you'd be willing to do all that just for me? You're too kind."

"My generosity knows no bounds," he agreed solemnly before the smirk was back. "So…?"

"So…?" I repeated, stretching the syllable out as I knit my eyebrows together.

"Let me kiss you," those words passed through his lips again, this time in a whisper that made my heart flip-flop.

He… _was_ joking… right? Somehow, I wasn't so sure anymore. And come to think of it… the idea of kissing him didn't seem quite so scary as it had a couple weeks ago when I'd first established that rule. In fact, it now seemed like it might be maybe sort of… nice… One might even say _appealing_ and-

Oh gosh, I wasn't seriously considering this, was I? This was a bad idea! A _dangerous_ idea. The line between crushing on the guy and fake dating the guy had already become perilously blurred enough as is. Throw a kiss into the mix and it could only jumble my already befuddled feelings even further.

...then again… how much harm could one teeny, tiny, insignificant little kiss do? Really? We were professionals, weren't we? I could handle it, couldn't I? And okay sure, did I _actually_ think one small peck at a party would be any sort of deciding factor when it came to whatever my parents had to say to me tomorrow? Not really, no. But you never know, it could, uh… _rattle_ them! Yeah! Or-

Was I seriously trying to rationalize the kiss to myself now?!

That's it. Mouth? As the main involved party that will be most primarily affected in this matter, I leave the choice up to you. You should have zero problems coming to a decision, right? I mean, you speak your mind all the time without consulting me first anyway, so just go for it. I wash my hands of this. Go on, decide away!

Pulse racing and face heated and having zero clue what I was about to say, my lips parted.

"Pardon me."

Both Lea and I froze at the sound of another voice.

My _mother's_ voice.

I watched his eyes close and his shoulders slump, heard a faint exhale escape him. Then he lifted his forehead from mine as he straightened up and plastered on a smile that he directed towards Mother. She was standing just off to our right, beautiful and sophisticated in her purple evening gown accompanied by a shawl draped loosely around her arms. Lea greeted, "Mrs Fryse. You look lovely tonight, Ma'am."

"Thank you," she nodded graciously in return. "And apologies, I don't mean to intrude, but it was dawning on me that I've been neglectful in my duties as your host. Please, come with me and we can make our rounds introducing you to some of the family."

"Oh! Uh…" he frowned, his gaze drifting back towards me.

"It's fine," I said hastily, my hands unfastening from behind his neck and retracting as I took a step back from him. "Please, go on ahead. I'll…" my eyes flicked about before spotting a familiar flash of auburn across the way. "Ah! I think I see Anna over there, so I'll just go join her and you can come find me when you're done."

He still seemed reluctant to leave and I didn't blame him. Some of my relatives made Yelena and Weselton seem like an absolute treat by comparison. Finally he rose a hand towards my face, grazing the curled knuckle of his pinky along my cheek. "See you in a bit," Lea's voice was low as he tenderly pressed his lips to my brow.

Then he turned, offering his arm to Mother in a gentlemanly fashion. She slipped her hand around his elbow and he grinned, "Lead the way, Ma'am."

I watched them disappear into the crowd. This was for the best, really. Now I could avoid a repeat of the minor fiasco I'd experienced in front of Aunt Yelena. Lea was so much better at dealing with people anyhow. Who knew, maybe he'd even have the whole family singing his praises before the night was out.

Wishful thinking, but hey, it could happen. You don't know.

I brought a hand up to rest lightly over my heart, which had yet to fully calm down. I still didn't have the foggiest as to what my answer to Lea would've been if Mother hadn't interrupted us. And luckily for me, I'd probably never have to find out. The moment had passed. Honestly, it was probably for my own good too. Now wasn't the best time to be opening up _that_ particular can of worms.

Sighing, I started making my way towards where I'd seen Anna. It only took navigating the crowd for a few seconds before I located her standing next to one of the banquet tables, chatting and laughing with Maren.

I couldn't help but notice how elegant they both looked - Anna in her slinky yet tasteful green dress and hair done up in a voguish bun, Maren in her stylish, strapless black gown that accentuated the sparkle of her jewelry. Anna looked so at ease here, so natural. She was in her element here, while I very much was not. This world had always been more her domain than mine. I could certainly put on a fancy dress and look the part, but beyond that I was a lost cause. I did try. For the sake of my parents, I really _had_ tried. But the more time I spent away from this life, the more I came to realize just how much I'd never truly belonged in it in the first place.

Maybe after this nerve-wracking weekend was finally and at long last behind me, I could start to figure out where it was that I _did_ belong.

"Sis!" Anna smiled as I approached them. "I was hoping you'd turn up soon!"

I tipped my head to one side. "...you were?" Anna? Not taking one look at me and running from me like the plague? And actually, dare I say it, _pleased_ to see me?

"Uh-huh! Because now I can give you this," she beamed, plucking a glass flute up off the table and offering it to me. It was identical to the one in her other hand and filled with some mystery beverage - guessing champagne, judging by the bubbles.

"...oh," I breathed, trying not to let my disappointment color my voice too much as I gingerly took it from her. "Thanks." Bit of a let down, especially considering I probably wasn't going to be drinking it. But hey, at least it was something. At least she had managed to stay in my presence for longer than ten seconds so far. Maybe this could be seen as her way of making a peace offering. Extending the olive branch. Maybe she was ready to talk about whatever she'd been holding back from me.

"So Anna," I began, but immediately stopped as I watched her blanch and go rigid.

Okay… take that as a no, she wasn't ready. Not at all.

I clamped my mouth shut, eyes darting to the left as my mind scrambled for something safe, something light. "...your dress is very pretty. Both of you look gorgeous this evening."

Anna visibly relaxed, piping up with a, "Thanks, Sis!"

"Back at you," Maren grinned, clinking her own glass to mine before raising it to her lips. "Slipped away from that boyfriend of yours, huh? The way you two were carrying on, I thought you were going to be attached at the hip all night."

I laughed softly, shyly twiddling with one of my earrings, "No, Mother whisked him away so she could introduce him around."

"Brave man," Maren snerked.

Trailing a finger absently along the rim of my flute now, I asked, "And where are your dates tonight?"

"Pft, you kidding?" My cousin shook her head. "As if I'd ever drag my girl into the lion's den. Trust me, she's perfectly content staying out of the _Lifestyles of the Rich and Snooty_ and I am more than happy to let her do that."

"I envy her. Staying out of all this sounds like a dream come true," I nodded before glancing to Anna. "And what about you? Where's your new boyfriend? I was looking forward to meeting him finally."

"Oh, him? He, er… couldn't make it at the last minute! That stinker," she gave a weak chuckle, averting her gaze as she took a swig of her drink. "Yeah, he unfortunately… had a _thing_ to do… with the _stuff!_ And you know how important the, uh… the thing and the stuff can be! But he'll be here tomorrow, I _promise!_ You'll totes get to meet him before you leave! Yup! Yooou betcha! Heh..."

"...I see." Tomorrow? Would that really be wise, given all the family drama that was surely about to explode that very day? Ah well, I suppose there was nothing for it. I forced a small smile, "Can't wait."

"Oh hey! Tomorrow's your big talk with Mom and Dad too, right?" she piped up suddenly and I nodded with a slight grimace. "Aw, chin up, don't look so blue! I'll be there holding your hand through the whole thing! We're in this together, Sis, so you got _nothing_ to worry about, I promise!"

Another smile, this one relieved and a touch more genuine. "Thanks…"

Then there was a pause.

Of the long and uncomfortable variety.

...screw it, I was just going to try and ask her again.

"Anna, I-" There it was once more. That panic flooding her eyes. I hesitated, taking a sip of my drink just because it was there. I hardly even realized I was doing it. Oh well, one sip wasn't going to hurt me. I was too anxious to even taste it. Rallying, I tried again, "Could we please maybe-"

"Oh my _god_ , is that _Grandpabbie?!_ Sis, did you know that _Grandpabbie_ was here?!" Anna squealed. "Lookit him, he's so cute and squishy and small! I'm gonna go attack him with snuggles and smoochies!"

Once again, off she went. I had no choice but to let her go, just hastily calling after her, "Be careful, he's fragile!"

"Please, he's tough as a rock!" Anna shouted back before the crowd swallowed her whole.

My lips pressed into a thin line. Maybe Lea was right. Maybe I had to stop trying to push her and instead just give her space, trusting that she'd open up in her own time.

Still… didn't mean I had to like it.

"Sorry about earlier, by the way."

I gave a tiny jolt as Maren suddenly spoke up. Fudge, I'd forgotten she was here. Not quite sure what she was talking about, I turned a bemused smile towards her, "Oh?"

"Didn't mean to make you uncomfortable by drooling over your man," she grinned and shrugged, swirling the liquid about her flute. "I was only teasing anyhow since I didn't think you two were serious, but I never would have in the first place if I'd known."

"...known what…?" I arched an eyebrow, just now becoming aware of the fact that I'd idly brought the glass up to my lips again. Whatever, _two_ sips weren't going to hurt me.

"That you're in love with him."

I choked and spluttered on my drink.

Sorry, who's in what with huh now?!

Wheezing for breath as my face flared up red, I asked, "In _love?_ Who said anything about-"

"It's okay, nothing to get all bashful over," Maren cooed, free hand flicking a dismissive wave. "Anna told me."

My eyes narrowed. "Told you _what_ exactly?"

"I believe her exact words were _true love_ ," she used air quotes with a snigger.

"Ugh, Anna," I grumbled, pinching the bridge of my nose. "You know how she is. Just take everything she says with a grain of salt."

Maren cocked her head, a shrewd glint to her eye now. "So then you're saying it _isn't_ love?"

I twitched, cheeks warming again. "I, er… well I never said... um…" Why did this question make me nervous? With a start, I realized my anxious hand had raised the flute to my mouth yet _again_. Gah! Someone take this thing away from me, I was turning into a friggin' lush over here! Swiftly depositing the glass onto the tray of a passing-by waiter, I cleared my throat and wrung my hands together. "I, uh… I'd rather not talk about it."

She considered me momentarily. Then a knowing smirk spread across her face and she simply shrugged again, looking past me now. "I'll say this for your boy. He certainly seems to be handling the gauntlet well."

"The gauntlet?" I asked, turning to follow her gaze. There Lea stood, a bit of ways off with Mother still on his arm, the pair of them surrounded by what looked to be a small army of my relatives. I frowned, "...you don't think they're giving him _too_ hard of a time, do you?"

"You kidding? Our family is a bunch of vultures who can smell lower-middle class from a mile away and trust me, they're tearing into him like a fresh carcass. Correction, _politely_ tearing into him," she snorted, downing the last of her beverage before swapping it out with a fresh one from the tray of a different waiter. "Love or no, it's not everyone who'll put up with that BS. He must really care about you."

...they probably were indeed putting him through the wringer over there. You wouldn't know it by looking at him, for he was all big grins and loud laughs and modest hair ruffling. But you could see it in the faces of my relatives. In their smiles that were just a little too plastic and in their eyes flashing with poorly concealed disdain.

Perhaps _this_ was why we had been invited to the ball. My parents had indeed wanted to teach a lesson, only not to me but to Lea. Try and make it clear to him how unsuitable and unacceptable they thought it was for him to be with their daughter. That no matter how he dressed himself up, they'd always consider him unworthy and lesser than. That he would never belong in this world… never belong with me.

And yet, he didn't seem to be fazed by any of the subtle yet nasty snobbery. He was still just as bright and cheerful as ever. He was putting himself through all of this and for what? He was getting nothing in return. He was going out of his way and turning his life upside down, all just out of the goodness of his heart and to help a friend.

I'm not sure what exactly compelled me to do it. Maybe it was this foreign, tingly sensation tugging inside my chest. Or maybe it was just the champagne talking. Either way, I quietly excused myself from Maren as my feet started walking forward, pushing my way through the other guests and heading straight for Lea.

Coming to a stop behind him, I reached for his sleeve with a soft, "Pardon me."

He whipped around at the sound of my voice, eyes lighting up. "Need something, El?"

"Could I borrow you for just one moment?" I smiled up at him, slipping my hand into his.

"Course!" He looked back to my mother and the rest of that little group. "If you'll excuse me, ladies and gents, I'll be back in a jiff!"

Entwining our fingers together, I lead him a few steps away from my relatives, just enough to be out of earshot. When I turned to face him again, he grinned, "So what can I do for ya?"

I didn't say anything, just crooked a finger. Probably assuming I wanted to whisper something in his ear, he ducked his head down next to mine. I then gently cradled one of his cheeks in my hand and pressed a kiss to the other.

Except it wasn't so much his cheek I kissed as the corner of his mouth.

I blame the champagne.

Because really, what other logical explanation was there?

His whole body tensed, his eyes growing round and unblinking. As I started to pull away and take a step back however, one of his hands shot out to snag me around the waist. Pulling me back to him, he nuzzled his nose to mine, gaze hooded as he murmured, "You missed."

Ignoring that little flutter in my chest, the corners of my eyes crinkled as I hitched my chin slightly. "I suppose I did. I was aiming for your cheek."

"Right… cheek… that's what I meant," Lea released a breathy chuckle as he let me go now and straightened back up to his full height. "So, uh… what was that for anyway?"

I gave a low, thoughtful hum. "...just a small thank you for everything you've been doing for me. These last couple of weeks can't have been easy for you... putting up with this silly, harebrained scheme, not to mention juggling it with your school and job too. And now on top of all of that, you have to deal with my haughty and condescending family as well."

"Psh, it's nothing," he brushed off with a laugh, scratching his cheek. "I can handle a lil passive aggressive crap from these pompous old farts easy. Trust me, I've dealt with a way worse, so don't even sweat it, El. If this is what'll help ya out, I'm more than happy to do it!"

"But it's not just that. If it weren't for you, I think I might have gone out of my mind over the past weeks dreading seeing my parents again. But you kept me calm… and actually also kind of made it a bit fun too. And you've also always just been so supportive, which has meant a great deal to me. I don't know if or how I'll ever truly be able to repay you for all of this madness, but just know that I… I'm very grateful for all that you've done." Then a slow, tiny smirk tugged at one side of my lips. "...plus, now maybe you can finally rinse off your nose. It _has_ been getting a bit smelly."

Both his hands shot up to clamp over said nose. "Shit, does it really?"

I gave him a flat look. "I was kidding. Please tell me you weren't actually serious about never washing it again after I kissed it last week."

"Dead serious," he beamed as his hands lowered. "And jokes on you, cuz now _neither_ my nose _or_ this spot are ever gonna know the touch of soap again!" He pointed a finger to the corner of his grin, just now drawing my attention to the fact that my lipstick had left a faint mark there.

A noise emitted from my throat that was part scoff, part snort. "Come here," I sighed, reaching a hand up to wipe it away.

However, he snatched my wrist, stopping my thumb a centimeter short of his skin. "And just what do ya think you're doing, Missy?"

"I got some of my lipstick on you, I was just-"

"Leave it," he winked. "It's a gift from my fair maiden. I'm gonna wear it proudly, like a badge of honor. Now if you'll 'scuse me, a gaggle of your persnickety relatives are still just dying to rip me a new one. I shan't keep them waiting any longer." Planting a quick peck to the back of my hand, he said, "Be back at your side before ya know it. Try not to miss me too much."

I crossed my arms, shaking my head as I watched him go. As he rejoined that group with Mother, I couldn't help but overhear one of my aunts commenting, "Lea dear, you got a little…" Her lips pursed and she swiped a finger at the corner of her mouth, causing my face to warm as I realized she was referring to the lipstick.

It only roasted more when Lea declared boisterously, "Hell yeah I do!"

If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go find a rock to hide under now.

Burying my face in one hand, I spun around and made a fast retreat.

"I saw that."

My step faltered as I heard those words and I glanced over, discovering Anna had appeared practically out of thin air to fall in step beside me, a wide cheshire grin stretching across her features.

A crease emerged between my eyebrows. "Saw…? I'm not sure I-"

"Don't play coy with me," she said smugly as she nudged my shoulder with hers. "You know _exactly_ what I mean."

My head tilted to the right. "...you're referring to the kiss? That was just for show," I averted my gaze, dropping my voice to a whisper so as not to be overhead.

"Sis, please. There's being a couple, and then there's being a _couple_. I can't help but notice you two have been getting awful cozy this weekend, going a bit above and beyond. Maybe it is just all part of the act, but you do realize that there's no bonus points for any extracurriculars, right?" her eyebrows bounced.

A soft _hmph_. "Anna, you're reading too much into things. It was nothing. Really. Just… just the champagne bubbles going straight to my head, that's all."

"Champagne?" she blinked and frowned at me. "...didn't I tell you? That was apple cider I handed you earlier. Of the _totally_ non-alcoholic variety. Figured you'd want to keep a sober head tonight."

"Cider?" my head jerked back.

"Yup! What, you didn't realize that when you tasted it?" she giggled.

"No, I… guess I was too distracted…" I mumbled, hugging one arm around my abdomen while I brought the other up to bite down into my thumbnail.

Oh gosh, then… all that back there with Lea _hadn't_ been just the champagne talking?

...oh no. My crush was gaining in power, able to control me without me even realizing it now. Today was just my body, but tomorrow? The world.

But that was a matter for another time. Right now, I just needed to focus on surviving this weekend. Putting a pin in it and shoving it back to the deepest, darkest, furthest recesses of my mind where I tended to put any other emotions I didn't know how to deal with, I glanced back to Anna.

...okay, I _knew_ what Lea had told me. I _knew_ that pushing and prodding at her had gotten me nowhere so far. And I _knew_ I had decided but a few mere moments ago to let her be so that she could talk to me when she was ready. But right now, she seemed so content and carefree, just like she always had been with me. Well, that is, up until yesterday, of course. But maybe… just _maybe_ it wouldn't hurt to try one more time.

I took a deep breath. "Anna, I was hoping-"

"Ahhh! Do you see the size of that chocolate _cake?!_ I'm gonna-"

No. Not again. Not this time.

My sister has barely made it two steps before I'd seized her by the wrist, making her stumble into an awkward stop. With a huff of frustration, I snapped, "Anna! Can we _please_ for one minute just-" However, the words died on my tongue when she looked back at me, eyes wide and face stark white. Feeling a small pang in my chest, I released her, my hands fidgeting together. Tucking in my lower lip, I struggled to find the right thing to say to her. If I only knew what that was. Finally, I just settled on, "Please, just… know that I'm here for you. Whatever's troubling you, you can always come to me about anything. Anything at all."

She didn't say a word. Her expression didn't change. There was just the barest hint of a quiver to her bottom lip. Then she took a small step back before turning and running off.

And I just let her, left at a complete and utter loss in her wake.

* * *

_**Author's Note:** _ _Ooooo dRaMa! Haha I can't help but laugh because it's so rare for me to write it xD Tho I can't help but think it's probably not the drama you all were hoping for this chapter... to that I just say these 2 lil words: next chapter. Trust me. In fact, next few chapters are gonna be very exciting and jam-packed with THINGS, just you wait and see:3 Anyhoo, Yelena made her appearance this chapter! I know she's not a bad guy in the F2 movie, more just a very stern, no-nonsense character. Carrying THOSE traits over into this story however, it kind of turns her a bit into a sorta bad guy, but really only cuz she's reacting to the facts she's been dealt and those facts? Do NOT look good xD Minor fun fact: The Fryse ballroom here is based off Arendelle's castle ballroom from the first Frozen movie! Minor fun fact 2:_ _The ice cream this chapter, Crabclaw, is named after Atlantica's keyblade and I imagine its description on the menu would look something like: "_ _This butter-infused ice cream topped with sweet cooked crab will have you partying under the sea in no time!"_ _This is based on real ice cream that's sold out there somewhere in the world (for real! google it!), except replace crab with lobster (I figured it would probably work out close enough!)_

_Thank you so much for reading, especially to those of you who have left a kudos and shared with me your thoughts and feelings on this story so far! Remember, feedback is not only welcome, but highly encouraged and super appreciated!_


	27. Chapter 27

You know that counting sheep thing?

Does. Not. Work.

Of course, maybe I'd be having better luck with it if I was able to go more than seven or eight sheep before my stupid brain would get distracted chasing some other wayward thought down the rabbit hole.

And it didn't help that there were so many wayward thoughts to choose from too. There was wondering when all that seething rage Grandfather was barely keeping in check was finally going to explode and murder me. There was confusion over Mother's actions and uncertainty as to which side she was going to end up being on, mine or that of the family's reputation. There was dread over the talk I was going to have with her and Father that had seemed to take so distressingly, _painfully_ long to get here but now that the time was finally almost upon me, it suddenly seemed far too soon.

But probably the one that was eating away at me most of all, the one playing complete havoc with my nerves, the one that had kept me up tossing and turning all night long so far… was Anna.

I hadn't seen her for the rest of the party. To be fair, I hadn't stayed much longer after she'd fled from me. By that point, my capacity for human interaction had been maxed out and I'd needed to get out of there. Thankfully, Lea had managed to free himself from the clutches of my relations and had rejoined me, bearing two slices of cake. One look at me was all it took for him to know, then he was helping me make a quick exit. After escorting me back to my room, Lea had asked if I wanted company but I'd turned him down, saying I just wanted to go to sleep. He'd left me with a smile and one of the pieces of cake, which I'd set aside untouched on my vanity. From there, I'd changed into my nightgown and readied myself for bed, doing a poor job of it as I didn't even braid my hair. Then I'd turned off the light and crawled under the covers.

But I did not sleep.

Instead my mind whirled and raced and at the forefront of it all was Anna. What was it that had her so upset? Why couldn't she just tell me? How could it have caused such a drastic change in her attitude towards me? When had it even all begun? Was it something that she had been dealing with in silence, letting it fester for some time now and I just hadn't noticed until it'd gotten to be too much for her and she could no longer keep it hidden?

These were just a few of the questions that had kept me up. Were _still_ keeping me up, even now as I spotted the first feeble rays of sunrise beginning to light the night sky outside my window. Honestly, this thing with Anna was stressing me out more at this point than even the idea of The Talk™ was.

But thankfully, all that sleeplessness hadn't been for naught! I had a theory now. I'd been over it again and again in my head. Mentally retracing and _RE-_ retracing every step, every action I'd taken in the weeks between my wedding day and this very weekend, trying to figure out what it was I'd done, how I'd wronged my sister. And there was only one thing I could think of.

I should have called her sooner.

After running away, I shouldn't have waited so long to let her know that I was okay. God, she must have been going out of her mind with worry waiting to hear from me. I know _I_ would've been, had our roles been reversed. And sure, she'd seemed fine that first day she'd tracked me down at the food court, not to mention every day that'd followed after that up to this point. But she'd probably just been keeping the fact that it had really hurt her to herself. And to make matters worse, I hadn't even ever apologized for how long it'd taken me to reach out to her. That's probably all I'd needed to do to make things okay - an acknowledgment of my thoughtlessness and a simple sorry. That was it. And it'd never even occurred to me to do that, not once, not until right now in the wee hours of early dawn.

True, it was all just a guess. But it's all that I had! Now then... how to make her feel safe and comfortable enough to open up and just _tell_ me that? It's not like when we were kids and could just talk to each other about anything and everything. It's not like I could just magically make it all better like we'd always used to over whipping up a batch of-

I suddenly sat up with a gasp.

Because that's when I had it.

I knew what to do.

"Scotcheroos!"

* * *

" _There_ you are!"

I didn't even glance up at the sound of Lea's voice, just paused long enough to sample a quick taste of the contents of my mixing bowl before scrunching up my face. "No, no, it's _still_ wrong… maybe I just need to…" my muttering trailed off as I resumed pacing and stirring the concoction more furiously.

"Ya know, I take it back," he said, crossing his arms and leaning one shoulder against the kitchen door frame. "This place isn't a Clue board, it's a goddamn labyrinth. I've been wandering 'round lost in circles for who knows how long now. Luckily, I eventually came across a minotaur who I could ask directions. Good guy. Not at all as bullheaded as the stories would have you believe."

I was only half paying attention to what he was saying. Apparently, it wasn't the half that knew a lame pun when it heard it. Instead it was the half that marched up to him, shoved a small, chocolate-butterscotch coated spatula in front of his face and asked, "Does this taste right to you?"

He blinked, eyes flicking to the silicone scraper then back to me. Then he poked a finger to the goop and stuck it in his mouth. "...it tastes good?"

I huffed and pressed, "But does it taste _right?_ "

"Yes?" he ventured a guess. I frowned and squinted up at him hard. "...and by _yes_ , I of course mean _no_. Obviously!"

"I _knew_ it!" I whirled around to slam the bowl down onto the counter. My hand came up to rub a curled finger over my chin as I groaned, "Ugh, what am I missing here?"

He was looking at me. At the nightgown I was still wearing. At my bare feet. At my hair thrown up into a loose, sloppy bun with several obstinate tendrils escaping to trail all around my face and neck. "...so is this where you've been hiding all morning?"

"All _morning?_ " I laughed, shaking my head as I moved over to a second bowl on the stove top. Maybe I'd been on the right track with this earlier attempt. "Don't exaggerate, it's only-"

"Noon?" he offered with a half-shrug.

" _Noon?!_ " I parroted back in disbelief. He nodded and I looked to the clock on the oven, which only further confirmed it. "But that's _impossible_ , there's quite simply _no_ way I've-" the words caught in my throat however, for all it took was one glance about the kitchen to verify that, yes in fact, there quite simply _was_ way. My parent's home had a massive, king-sized kitchen to be sure but even so, I'd managed to cover almost every surface in it with many, _many_ other bowls filled with all my previous discarded attempts. Oh gosh, you'd think I'd been at this all _night_ , not just merely since the crack of dawn.

"Ya missed breakfast by the way," Lea said conversationally. "Man, was it awkward with only me sitting there with your folks, Gramps and a handful of your aunts and uncles. Lemme tell you, they're not as big of fans as you are of the _Let Me Guess Your Fave Ice Cream_ game."

I winced, scratching my cheek with a tiny, "Sorry." Now that I thought about it, I did remember the cook bustling about in here as well at some point, probably making the breakfast Lea was referring to. She'd left me to my own devices, the kitchen being more than big enough to accommodate us both without getting in each others' ways. I'd only thought she'd been in here for a minute or two though.

He waved it off, "Nah, don't worry about it. I like to think your fam and I really bonded over all those crepes and long, uncomfortable silences."

I just gave a vague _hmm_ in my throat, already distracted by the task at hand once more as I moved from one bowl to the next. This one? No… Maybe this one? No…

"I didn't know ya knew how to cook," I heard him say.

"I don't," I muttered, pulling a face at the peanut butter rice crispy batter in this pot, which was a whole _other_ mess of problems. One minor catastrophe at a time, however. First I needed to figure out the topping, _then_ I could work out the rest. I sidestepped to the next bowl.

Lea tipped his head to one side. "So then you just know the recipe for this one thing?"

"Not really, no."

His lips pursed to the right. "...struck in the middle of the night by the sudden, inexplicable but undeniable urge to teach yourself how to cook before the day's out?"

I paused, looking up to meet his gaze. "Yes."

He cocked an eyebrow, "Really?"

"Nope." And my search continued! Maybe in that pan over there…

"Okay seriously, whatcha doing?"

Ah-ha! Not the pan, but the gigantic bowl right next to it! I think _this_ batch had been the closest so far. I picked it up and started walking towards Lea, declaring, "Scotcheroos!"

His brow furrowed, "Scotcha-wha?"

"Scotcheroos," I repeated, coming to a stop in front of him and shifting my hold on the container to one arm before stabbing a finger into the mixture. "Taste," I calmly demanded - his only warning before I suddenly stuck my fingertip drenched in sugary, chocolatey goodness into his mouth, forcing a small, strangled noise to choke out of his throat. Hand retracting, my eyes big and round and imploring, I asked, "What's the missing ingredient?"

"I, uh…" he cleared his throat, averting his gaze under my scrutiny as he rubbed at the nape of his neck. Then he snerked and grin, "Love?"

My eyelids drooped. "...not funny."

"It was a lil funny," he mumbled, making me scoff as I spun around and started pacing again, free hand coming up to clasp over my mouth as my index finger tapped the tip of my nose in thought. "C'mon, El, what're ya worried about? It tastes fine."

"But it doesn't taste _right_ ," I insisted, snatching up a clean spatula from a nearby utensil holder and feverishly stirring at the mixture. Was that helping? No clue. As previously stated, I didn't know the first thing about cooking. "And it has to. It must be absolutely _perfect_. You see, when Anna and I were children, Halima used to come over all the time and make these with us. Particularly whenever there was a squabble between us girls that she wanted to help settle. And these always, I don't know… _helped…_ make things _better_. Somehow. So I thought that maybe… If I could just… Then possibly Anna would..." I stopped, puffed out a slow breath and regathered myself. "But it's been so long since she last made them with us and it just keeps coming out… _wrong_. I can't remember the exact recipe."

"Why not ask Halima?" he suggested, moving to stand opposite the kitchen island from me.

My eyes rolled as my feet continued to patrol back and forth. "What, at 6 a.m. when this whole madness began? Besides, I don't think she and Mattias even stayed here last night and I don't have her phone number."

"Well then, they have this fabulous invention called the internet."

"Don't you think I _tried_ that already?" I swung up the spatula in frustration, sending some butterscotch-chocolate flying straight towards Lea. He ducked and it blurred over his head to splatter against a wall behind him. "But all the recipes out there are a little different, and _none_ of them know Halima's secret ingredient."

He snapped his fingers, "Applesauce."

I froze midstep. Then I slowly turned to look at him, the hint of a smile tugging at one corner of my lips. "So you _were_ listening last night."

"Course!" he beamed, hunching forward and propping his elbows on the island countertop, arms folded together. "Always do when ya got something to say."

I snorted, brushing the empty sweet talk off as I went back to pacing and stirring. "Anyway, nice try, but it's not like she uses the same secret ingredient in all her recipes. Hmm, maybe it was… honey? Or coconut oil? ...marshmallow cream...?" When I happened to glance Lea's way again, my feet came to a grinding halt once more as I gasped, "Sea salt!"

Both his eyebrows shot up his forehead. "As in the ice cream?"

"No, as in _sea salt_." Slapping the spatula down onto a counter, I started throwing open all the overhead cupboards in a frantic search. The upside of such a well-stocked kitchen was it had _everything_. The downside was it could be impossible to find the one thing you _actually_ needed. But behold! Sea salt! There at last, in the ninth cupboard I'd check. But ugh, of course it just _had_ to be on the top shelf, didn't it?

Swiping a finger over my cheek to brush a few strands of hair out of my face (which then promptly fell back into place), I secured the mixing bowl by hugging it tightly to my stomach with one arm while stretching the other up high over my head, reaching for the blue bottle. "It's probably not _the_ ingredient, but it's at least _one_ ingredient I forgot." Almost there…

A hand that wasn't mine suddenly appeared over my head to beat me to it, snatching up the little bottle of sea salt. I whipped around only to be greeted by the sight of a black band tee stretched snugly over a broad chest that I was becoming almost disturbingly all too familiar with at this point.

Pssst, Lea's eyes were up _there_ , dummy.

Can you blame me, though? Really? I can't help it if the damn thing was always in my direct line of sight! Curse my genetics for making me so damn short!

I hastily looked up to meet his gaze as he offered me the sea salt. Gosh, he was so close. Really, the only thing separating us was my bowl. Beating my blush back with a proverbial stick, I gingerly took the small bottle with a soft, "Thank you." I then flicked the top open with my thumb and gave it a squint, wondering how much was too much. Welp, only one way to find out! I tipped it upside down over the mixture and let the pouring commence.

"So ya really think these Scotcha-thingies will get Anna to talk to you?" he shook his head slightly.

"I don't see why not." I kept dumping more and more out of the bottle. Better too much than too little, right? "It's always worked in the past. It'll work now. It has to."

"Yeah, but-"

"It _has_ to!" I snapped desperately, slamming the bottle down on the countertop now with a loud _bang_ that made me wince. Grimacing, I added more quietly, "Otherwise I don't know what else to do."

Lea frowned down at me. "...okay, real talk? How much sleep did you get last night?"

My nose wrinkled. "Zero, give or take an hour. Except not give, only take. Is it possible to get _negative_ sleep?"

"If it is, you most certainly have," he snorted. "Alright, Missy, I think it's naptime for you."

A contemptuous huff escaped my nose. "Don't patronize me, I'm not a child. I'm _fine_."

"You have chocolate all over your face."

"I-?!" Embarrassed, my hand rushed up to scrub at my face. Lea's eyes crinkled and I could see him biting back a grin. When I lowered my hand to look at it, I figured out why. They were smeared all over in chocolate too, so I was probably only making the face situation worse.

He started lifting a hand towards me, then seemed to think better of it, using it to smother his smile instead. Then he asked, "Allow me?"

I narrowed my eyes at him. But then I sighed and tossed one hand up in an impatient gesture for him to get on with it. Snerking, he took the mixing bowl from my grasp and set it aside so he could step closer to me. His hand rose once more, gently brushing the curled knuckles of his fingers along my chin and across the tip of my nose, wiping away the smudges there. Was it just tired, sleep-deprived brain talking, or did he have that soft boyfriend look in his eyes again? Maybe he didn't even realize he was doing it. Maybe he'd forgotten how to turn it off at this point. Either way, that proverbial stick I'd mentioned earlier had snapped in two by now, making it impossible to keep the blush at bay anymore.

His hand cupped my cheek then, his thumb lightly stroking along my skin and leaving warm tingles in its wake. He let it linger there and I had to wonder at how stubborn that particular smear of chocolate must be. And still with that damn _look_. That thing could be considered a lethal weapon. Honestly, I was surprised I was still standing.

His lips parted, taking in a breath, about to say something and-

"Elsa dear." At the sudden sound of my mother's voice, Lea jumped and jerked back a step from me, swearing under his breath as he turned his back to us both, fingers viciously ruffling his crimson spikes. Mother arched one delicate eyebrow at me from where she had just appeared in the doorway. "Here you are. We've missed you all morning."

"Ah… yes, so I've heard. Sorry, I uh…" My hands self-consciously smoothed up and down my nightgown before clasping together as I took a quick glance about the kitchen. At the small mess I'd made here. Should I even try to explain? The more I thought about it, the more insane it sounded. "...just lost track of time, it seems," I finally settled on, hoping Mother wouldn't pry further.

Thankfully, she did not. Instead, she simply said, "Your father and I are ready for our discussion." She paused, giving my appearance a once over. "...perhaps you would like some time to freshen up first. You can join us in the Indigo Room in an hour." She tacked on a quick, "Lea," by way of greeting to him, bowing her head slightly.

"Ma'am," he returned with a weak chuckle and tiny wave. Then Mother turned and walked off, disappearing down the hallway. "Dun dun dun!" Lea mock chanted ominously, earning his shoulder a light smack from my hand and he sniggered.

Shaking my head, I muttered, "Well, guess I should go get changed."

"I'll meet ya outside your door when you're ready and we can take our lil stroll to the gallows together," he said brightly.

I gave a rueful smile, "You almost make it sound pleasant. Until then." On my way out, I ran across Gerda in the hall, who I asked to make sure no one tidied up the mess I'd left in the kitchen. Seeing as how it was a disaster zone of my own making, I preferred to clean it up myself later rather than make someone else do it. Then I headed up to my bedroom.

One would think I would be in a state of extreme panic now that the time of The Talk™ was finally upon me. However, as I switched out of my nightgown and got myself otherwise ready, I was oddly more just… _numb_. Huh. Perhaps I'd already used up all my crazy this morning and had nothing left in me to fret with. At least not right now, in the relative sanctuary of my old room. I'm sure I'd have no problem rustling up a fresh wave of cardiac arrest-inducing anxiety once I was standing in front of my parents.

But for now, I'd take comfort in this numbness. Who knew, maybe there really was nothing to worry about anyway. I'd been assuming the worst this whole time, but I honestly had no idea what this little chat was going to have in store for me. My parents had been doing too good of a job staying tight lipped and keeping their opinion on this matter to themselves. No big shock there, really. Who do you think invented the _Conceal, Don't Feel_ mantra? My parents were the masters of that technique and had always been experts at keeping their cards close to the vest. But perhaps I was in for a pleasant surprise. Perhaps all they wanted to say was how proud of me they were for standing up for myself and how they would support whatever path in life I chose, as long as it made me happy!

...yeah right. All of Arendelle would freeze over in the middle of June before _that_ happened.

Regardless, just under an hour later found me almost ready to go. I was somewhat more presentable now, dressed in a nice sundress I'd brought packed in my luggage for this weekend and with my hands and face washed clean of any remaining chocolate. I was just sitting down on the edge of my bed to tie my ankle boots when I heard my phone buzz. Retrieving it from my nightstand, one peek at the notifications informed me that Lea had sent a text:

_Knock knock_

I looked to my bedroom door. Then back to my phone, thumbs typing a message back.

_Who's there?_

There was a pause in his reply, so I tossed it onto the mattress next to me before reaching down to tug the laces of my boot tight. It wasn't until after I'd knotted the bow and moved onto the second shoe that my phone was vibrating again. I picked it up.

_A dumbass_

I quirked an eyebrow at that. Then tapped back:

_A dumbass who?_

I'd finished the other boot by the time his response came.

_A dumbass who Bgan a knock knock joke w/o realizing it n so hz no punchline 4 u_

One side of my mouth twitched up.

_Wow, how embarrassing for you. They could revoke your snark license for that utterly epic failure._

I watched those three little dots bounce.

_Shush n get ur butt out here alrdy_

Snorting, I rose to my feet and pocketed my phone. A quick look around the room unfortunately revealed no further ways for me to procrastinate. Alright… guess it was time to get this over with. Heaving a heavy sigh through my nose, I exited the bedroom, shutting the door quietly behind me.

Lea was waiting just outside, one shoulder propped against the wall to my left as he scrolled through his phone. Slipping it into his back pocket, he glanced up at me with a tiny smirk but then his spine snapped straight and his eyes widened. "That dress…"

"Hm? What about it?" I looked down at myself. There didn't seem anything particularly striking about it. Just a simple white sundress with a small purple diamond pattern decorating the hem at the bottom and- "Oh! Now I remember. This is the one you said I was wearing in your little fiction you cooked up about how we met, right?"

"Yeah," he smiled softly, scratching at a spot behind his ear. "It's as pretty on you as I, uh… imagined... it would be."

"Thanks," I ducked my head shyly. Luckily I'd had time in the past hour to tape and glue my proverbial stick back together, so I was able to thwack that blush down before it ever really had a chance to even get started. Peering back up at him once more, I couldn't stop a small huff of a laugh in my throat. "Is that what you're wearing? Really?"

"Gotta problem with it?" he shrugged cheekily. He hadn't changed since the kitchen. He was still in his faded band tee, ripped and ragged skinny jeans and steel-toed boots. And yeah, I get it, there was this whole badboy aspect he was going for to keep my parents from thinking they could scare him off. But at the same time, there had to be some sort of compromise, some sort of middle ground where he wasn't also provoking them and possibly making this upcoming conversation worse than it had to be.

Suddenly, he was snapping his fingers. "But wait, you're right! Be right back!" Then he was running off down the corridor back towards the guest room he was staying in. Since it was in the same direction we needed to go anyway for the Indigo Room, I just shook my head as I followed behind more slowly.

He was popping back out of his door just as I caught up. I took one look and wanted to facepalm. "Better?" he asked, smugly flipping up the collar of his leather jacket. "But wait, there's more!" Lifting the jacket up slightly revealed the return of that silly wallet chain hanging from his hip.

Ugh, I should have just kept my mouth shut.

"And the icing on the cake!" he reached inside his jacket and started pulling out the pink, heart-shaped sungla-

" _No!_ " I darted forward, shoving them back into his inside pocket. Crud, these dumb things were becoming the bane of my existence. I pat my palm against where I could feel them on the outside of his jacket, saying sweetly, "Why don't we just keep those tucked away for now, okay?"

"You sure? Just trynta dress to impress!"

"But you're already so very impressive. Too impressive, in fact. My parents might faint from the sheer amount of impressiveness you already are."

"Woah, I'm even more impressive than I thought and that's saying something!" he chuckled. Then with a grin, he bent at the waist into a half-bow and flourished one hand out ahead of us. "Well then, shall we?"

I nodded and we set off down the hall.

We walked along in a companionable silence. Lea seemed to realize I was using this time to mentally prepare myself and bolster my emotional defenses. My mind kept going over it again and again. The exact words I wanted to say to my parents. It'd been something I'd constantly been turning over in the back of my brain ever since Friday evening's dinner. I had a whole little speech prepared. Must have ran through it a million times in the past two days. I _had_ to, otherwise I would just be left stuttering and floundering and drawing a complete blank before my parents. It went a little something like…

_Good afternoon, Father and Mother. How are you?_

(Good opening. Solid. Cordial. A classic.)

_As I'm sure we're all well aware, we're here to discuss the events of my wedding day._

(Straight to the point. Very concise and clear.)

_First, please allow me to apologize. I deeply regret any pain and indignity my actions may have caused you or the rest of the family._

(And thus in one fell swoop, I've demonstrated sympathy and understanding, letting them know I acknowledge their feelings, their side of things. Was I killing it with this little speech or what?)

_However, please understand that I quite simply could not go through with it. I didn't love him. I wouldn't have been able to make him happy, and he certainly wouldn't have been able to make me happy. It wasn't until I ran away from my old life altogether that I realized I just wasn't happy period. That I hadn't been for some time._

(A simple and straightforward statement of the problem. Plain and direct. Uncomplicated. How could they argue with that?)

_I felt smothered. Like I couldn't breathe. I needed my freedom and getting away from everything I'd previously known helped me realize that. Living somewhere new, getting a job, forging out my own path in life… I've been much happier than I have been in a long while. This is what's best for me right now and I hope that with time, you'll come to realize that too._

(And just like that, a ready-to-go solution was presented to the aforementioned problem. The hard work was already done! All my parents had to do was just hear and accept that. Easy, right?)

_Thank you for your time and consideration, I now open the floor up for further discussion and questions._

(...okay, maybe that last bit was a tad overly formal and unnecessary, but you get the picture.)

I think that covered all my bases. Sure, it didn't mention Lea at all. But it didn't totally _negate_ the alleged role he'd played either, at least as far as my parents knew. I was hoping to maintain that little fib by just avoiding discussing it with them entirely. And sure, Lea would be present, but he was just going to be there as moral support for me and a deterrent for debate from my parents. Really, the focus of the talk shouldn't be on him anyway. It was supposed to be on me, on my feelings and why I did what I did.

I was able to rehearse my speech in my head a couple more times before we at last turned a corner and I spotted it.

The doorway leading into the Indigo Room.

Ah, there it was. The spike of adrenaline. That constricting of my chest. Right on cue, panic slithered in to encircle my heart, squeezing it, causing cracks in its protective little numb bubble, seeking entry. I gulped but kept walking, my step never faltering. My hand unconsciously found Lea's, causing him to shoot me a glance out of the corner of his eye. Then he smiled as he gave it a warm, tiny squeeze.

This was it.

There was no turning back now.

Just twenty more steps and I'd be through that door and facing whatever awaited me beyond. I screwed my eyes shut, going over my speech for the umpteenth time. These words were really the only things keeping me sane at this point.

_Good afternoon, Father and Mother. How are you?_

Ten more steps. My heartbeat thundered in my ears.

_As I'm sure we're all well aware, we're here to discuss the events of my wedding day. First, please allow me to apologize._

Five more. I sucked in a breath and held it.

_I deeply regret any pain and indignity my actions may have caused…_

Three… two… O-

"Ah! There you are, my boy!"

The sudden, booming, and dare I say even _cheerful_ voice had me stumbling and snapping my eyes open wide. Was that… I could have sworn it sounded like…

... _Grandfather?!_

He'd just come bursting through the very door we'd been heading for, with Father and the Duke walking out behind him as well. He was holding his arms wide open and had this huge smile on his face and- my god, was that an actual _skip_ in his step?

Who was this man and what had he done with my grandfather?

...on top of that, I was just now discovering that Loud, Smiley Grandfather was _way_ scarier than Quiet, Scowley Grandfather.

The maneuver was swift, calculated and efficient. He clapped his hands down on Lea's shoulders, catching him off guard as he spun him one-eighty, tearing his hand from mine. Then Grandfather was slinging an arm around Lea's shoulders all chummy-like. "Come! Walk with us, lad," he rumbled with laughter, forcing Lea into a staggering march beside him as he led him away. "Have you ever had a 1939 Macallan Scotch? Or a Gurkha Black Dragon cigar? No? Would you like to? How about right now?"

"Er…" still being all but dragged away, Lea glanced back over his shoulder at me uncertainly.

Bewildered myself, I just shrugged before gesturing for him to go along with it.

I feared Lea trying to resist whatever this was might risk poking the bear.

The Duke brushed past me to follow the two of them, posture rigid and face as crotchety as ever. Father was the last to go, gracing me with a brief smile. "Go on in. They're waiting for you," he nodded back towards the Indigo Room. Then off he went with the rest of the menfolk. Watching them go left me absolutely baffled.

What on earth had _that_ been all about?!

I had nothing. Zilch. No plausible explanation whatsoever. Well, none except for _-_

Oh _no_.

They were literally about to murder him.

Think about it. It was the only thing that made sense! Why else would-

Wait… "they?"

That's what my father had just said, right? " _They're_ waiting for you inside." His exact words. Who was this _they?_ Shouldn't it just be Mother in there? Either Mother had had a change of pronouns and I was about to have a _completely_ different conversation than I'd been expecting this whole time, or…

...someone else was in there with her.

Anna, perhaps? Yeah, that had to be it. After all, despite whatever her issue with me was currently, she was supposed to be there to have my back through this. And with Lea having just been straight up kidnapped, I'd need Anna's help more than ever. Yeah, that's probably all it was. Just Mother and Anna in there.

Hoping I was just being paranoid a second ago and Lea wasn't _actually_ off somewhere getting assassinated this very moment, I shoved such thoughts to the back of my mind and prepared to go inside. I squared my shoulders, smoothed the nonexistent creases out of my dress, swept my braid-

_Fudge_ , I'd forgotten to braid my hair! It was still up in that crude bun. Oh well, no time to fix it now. Hopefully it wouldn't come across so much as "messy" as just "stylishly disheveled." Regathering what little courage I could muster, I took a deep breath, clenched my hands at my sides and finally, at long last, stepped through that door into the Indigo Room.

It was a sitting room that lived up to its name. Everything was a rich shade of blue-violet from the walls to the carpet to the window curtains to the two couches taking up the middle of the room, facing each other from across the long coffee table between them. Sitting together in one of those sofas were three people. Mother - of course I'd expected her. Aunt Yelena - admittedly a bit more unexpected, but actually wasn't all that shocking. And... Maren? Okay, seeing her here actually _did_ kind of surprise me.

But even more concerning than the people I saw before me now was the one person I _wasn't_ seeing.

Anna.

Where was she?

Mother rose to her feet, a subdued smile on her face as she folded her hands in front of her just below her waist. "Elsa. Thank you for joining us. Please," she bowed her head slightly towards the couch across from her, "have a seat."

Perhaps a better question would be, what the heck was _this?_

...some kind of intervention? An ambush?

Oh gosh, was that why they'd taken Lea away? Had they just been trying to separate us so they could get me alone? Divide and conquer?

I stood rooted to the spot, not budging an inch. Aunt Yelena, usual stoic expression set firmly in place, said, "Maren dear, perhaps you could assist your cousin."

Maren grimaced, making a soft noise in her throat that was half huff, half growl. Then she stood, making her way over to me to take hold of my elbow, gently guiding me over towards the empty sofa. My feet dazedly followed. "Sorry," she whispered to me. "I didn't want to be here. Grams made me." She shot Yelena a sour look as she nudged me into taking a seat before rejoining the other two on the opposite couch.

Then everything fell silent.

Well... everything, that is, except for the hammering inside of my ribcage and the shallow, raspy breaths through my nose.

Alright, fine. So what if this wasn't exactly how I'd pictured it? So what if instead of my parents, I was facing off with some sort of, I don't know… _matriarchy tribunal_ or whatever? So what if Anna wasn't here?

...why wasn't she here? She was _supposed_ to be here! She was supposed to-

No! Stop it! Be strong! Be brave! You can do this on your own, Elsa. Remember the speech! Just recite those words you know so well by now and everything will turn out alright, you'll see. You got this!

Inhaling slowly through my nose, I began, "Good afternoon, Father and-" _Shoot_ , I'd already screwed it up! Wincing, I stammered, "N-Not Father! _Mother!_ A-And Aunt Yelena and Maren too, of course! Er… h-how are you? As I'm well aware, we're here to discuss my day." I blanched, looking down at my hands as they balled into trembling fists in my lap. "Wedding day! My… my _wedding_ day. First, please apologize. _Allow!_ Allow _me_ to…" Ugh, so much for the speech. Why didn't I think to bring friggin' note cards? "...that is to say, I r-regret any actions my pain and indignity may have- wait! No, I-"

Yelena suddenly cut in with a blunt, "Does that boy have you on drugs?"

"What?!" my head shot up and I gaped at her. "I am most certainly _not_ on _-_ "

"It's okay, child," she held up a placating hand. "You're in a safe place. You can share the truth with us, we won't judge. Please, tell us how that boy has led you astray. Debauchery, intoxication, hedonism-

"Auntie," Mother interrupted her, placing a hand over hers as she shot her a small warning look. Then her full attention was on me again, her tone calm, as if she were speaking with a small child. "Elsa, you have _nothing_ to be ashamed of. I understand. Believe it or not, I was young and impulsive too once. I've known men like Lea. Men who are handsome, who appear mysterious and dangerous and how exciting and… _alluring_ all that can seem. It's just a phase, that's all. _He's_ just a phase. But it's all over and done with now."

...a phase? "No, that's not what-"

"It's _done_ now, Elsa," she repeated more sternly, expression hardening. "You just had to get it out of your system. And now that that little indiscretion is behind us and in the past where it belongs, we can forget all about it and you can get back on the correct course and fulfill your obligations."

"...get back on the…?" I echoed quietly, my brow furrowing. Then my head rocked back, gaze widening. "You don't mean-"

"Yes," Mother's eyes closed with a solemn nod. "Be grateful that your father and I were able to speak with his parents and smooth everything over. The wedding had to be rescheduled of course, but will otherwise proceed as planned."

"You still expect me to marry him?" I asked incredulously. This was absurd! Unreal! I'd even go so far as to say I must be dreaming, that this was literally a nightmare, except I would never be so lucky. I knew without a doubt that I was fully awake, that this was real life, and that this was _exactly_ how my family worked. I shot up to my feet, "No! I'm a full grown adult, you can't just-"

"We can and we will! Sit down, you foolish girl," Yelena snapped dryly. "We are all in agreement here that-"

" _We?_ " Maren grumbled, slouching down further into her seat, propping her temple against her fist as she glared down at the coffee table.

Aunt Yelena narrowed her eyes on her granddaughter. "Yes, _we_." Her cold gaze then shifted to lock on me once again. "We are all in agreement here that your actions have shown you to be too immature to be making your own decisions and so we must make them for you. You have let that delinquent cloud your judgment and good sense. Tell us, are you even so naive as to think yourself in love? Please, lowlifes like him merely take perverse pleasure in seducing and praying on young, innocent girls and using them until they grow bored and move on."

I'd lowered myself to the couch once more. I wasn't even sure when that'd happened. I didn't remember doing it. "...no, that isn't…" I began, but then stopped with a frown. This was all wrong. This wasn't how this conversation was supposed to be going. It wasn't supposed to be about Lea. He wasn't supposed to be the main topic, just an obstacle. Well, my family had seen him as an obstacle alright - one they simply had to eradicate before everything went back to normal and I did as I was told. Shaking my head, I began again, "He isn't like that, but that's besides the-"

"Oh no?" my aunt quirked a disdainful eyebrow. Then to Mother, she said cooly, "Iduna, if you would please."

A look of unease flitted across Mother's face and she hesitated for a heartbeat. Then her hand was reaching down to her hip for something that'd been tucked away out of sight between her and Yelena. "I found this in your room," she said, eyes downcast as she laid the thing out on the low, hardwood table between us.

It was Lea's spiked choker that he'd left with me.

My fingers squeezed the edge of the couch cushions to either side of my knees. "You were going through my things?" I asked quietly, looking up at Mother. She avoided my gaze and said nothing. I felt a sharp, unpleasant twinge inside my chest.

...was this the real reason she'd come to visit me a couple nights ago? Not because she'd missed me or wanted some time alone with me, but to… _snoop?_ What, to look for something, _anything_ that could be used against me, no matter how small or ridiculous?

"I shudder to think what other horrors we might uncover in a more thorough search of whatever squalor you're using as a poor excuse for living arrangements at the moment," Yelena tsked. "Tell us, what other depraved acts did that boy use to beguile you? Substance abuse, carnality-"

"Oh god, Aunt Yelena, no!" I buried my face in my hands. I take it back… this was, in fact, a nightmare. This was _ludicrous_. All this fuss over a stupid, cheap piece of goth jewelry. Puffing out a breath, I gestured towards the collar, "That, right there? It's nothing. It was just a _joke_ , okay? It's-"

"The crumbling state of your future is no joking matter, young lady!" she huffed back, for the first time showing a crack in her stone cold mask. "Look at you! I don't even recognize you anymore. Gone is the sophisticated and well-mannered woman we all nurtured and helped you grow into. We're left with nothing but this pathetic, disgraceful shadow of what you once were. Your actions are mindless. Your behavior is deplorable. Your appearance is appalling." My appearance? What on earth was wrong with- oh for the love of… curse you, you cruddy bun! I just knew you'd be my downfall! "There is little doubt in our minds that this is all that degenerate's doing. He's got you all turned around, making questionable decisions and not taking care of yourself. And you _let_ him. Why? Just what do you have to say for yourself?"

It's funny… now that I was at last being given a real chance to speak, I found I could no longer string even two words together. My lips parted, but nothing came out. My throat had closed up, my voice had abandoned me. I glanced to Mother, but she still wouldn't look me in the eye. As for Maren, she just gave me the barest of shrugs and mouthed another silent 'sorry' to me.

My mouth was dry. Blood rushed in my ears. This was all wrong. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. Leading my family to believe that Lea was my boyfriend had been a mistake. It hadn't helped, it'd only made things worse. Now I'd been backed into a corner where I'd either have to defend the lie or come clean with the truth, and I didn't see either option turning out particularly well for me. My hands were wringing at the skirt of my dress, mangling and abusing the fabric. The corner of my eyes stung. This should have all been going so differently. Lea should have been here. _Anna_ should have been here. Where-

Suddenly the door to the room crashed open, making all four of us jolt. I twisted around in my seat to see Lea storming in, a dark scowl marring his features. I blinked.

He was angry.

I'd never seen him angry before.

I hadn't even thought a single angry bone existed in his body.

"Come back here, you vulgar, deadbeat _hooligan!_ " the Duke snarled as he too came in, hot on Lea's heels, his mustache swishing in an agitated frenzy. Lea ignored him and kept going.

Grandfather was next to arrive. Gone was the smile from earlier, replaced by pure unadulterated rage as he roared, "We told you to stop! Did you not hear us?! Or are you as deaf as you are brainless?"

"Lea?" I asked as he at last came to a halt next to me, my wide eyes darting back and forth between him and them. "What's going on?"

"Get your things," he ground out through grit teeth, grabbing my hand and pulling me up to my feet. "We're leaving."

"Wha-?" That was all I got out before he was on the move again, tugging me into a stumble after him.

Grandfather and the Duke were still bellowing their outrage, hurling insults that were getting lost in a jumbled torrent of words as the two of them tried to talk over each other. By now, Father had entered the room as well but unlike the other two, he only narrowed his eyes and remained grimly silent.

"Lea," I tried again, my free hand going to his arm as I struggled to keep up with his long, hurried strides, "tell me what happened."

"Oh, I'll tell you what happened alright. What _happened_ is Gramps here," Lea came to an immediate stop in front of the man in question, glaring daggers at him, "tried to pay me off to ditch you and disappear for good."

Both eyebrows shot up my forehead. "...Grandfather, is that true?"

"Of course it is!" Grandfather snapped, jabbing a finger into Lea's chest. "That's all you're looking for, isn't it?!" Another jab. "A nice, plump handout to make you hit the road and stop sullying my granddaughter's honor!" And yet again. "Well, what's the matter, dolt?!" Jab, jab, jab. "What, were you hoping for _more_ munny?! Not enough zeroes for you on that check, hm?!"

Lea's right eye twitched. "Swear to god, Gramps, if you poke me with that fucking finger one more damn time-"

"You mean to tell me you didn't take the munny?" a new voice, slow and dubious, interjected into the conversation. We all turned to see that Aunt Yelena had left the couch to join us, squinting at Lea with a skeptical frown.

"Shit no! What's wrong, you buncha geezers, hearing aids on the fritz? How many times do I have to fucking say it?! I don't want a damn cent of your stupid, stinking munny. Next person to ask will hear me telling 'em just exactly where they can take their munny and shove it! C'mon El, let's go already!" And he was off again, charging out the door and taking me with him.

I had to hand it to Lea. The tension in his shoulders, the flaring of his nostrils, the flash to his green eyes… he certainly had the whole offended boyfriend act down pat. He'd almost even had me fooled for a second there, but clearly it was all just for show. I mean... _pretty_ sure it was, anyway. It's not like he'd actually-

_Thud!_

That was the sound of me faceplanting into Lea's back as he came to an abrupt and unexpected stop just as we exited into the hallway. Ow. With a tiny wince, I looked past him to see what the roadblock was only to discover we'd almost had a head-on collision with-

"Anna?" I gasped softly. "Where have you-" The words died on my tongue.

She was shifting her weight from one foot to the other as a small, nervous smile flashed across her face. But that's not what I was looking at. No, what I was looking at was her shoulders. More specifically, at the _arm_ wrapped around her shoulders. More, _more_ specifically, at the person attached to the arm wrapped around her shoulders.

My eyebrows knit together. "...Hans?"

Hans Westergaard. That's right, _those_ Westergaards. As in the owners of the multi-billion dollar corporation Southern Isles Exports. As in long time business partners and allies of the Fryse family stretching back generations upon generations. As in this was their son before me, right here, right now. As in a boy I'd known since I was a child and had grown up with into teenagers. As in the teenager I'd began dating in highschool and started calling boyfriend. As in the boyfriend who'd proposed and became my fiancé. As in the fiancé who I'd left at the altar.

...as in my now ex-fiancé who currently had his arm wrapped around my little sister's shoulders.

I don't know how long I just stood there, staring and not blinking. It felt like an eternity, like time was standing still. But in reality, it was probably only a second, maybe two before I heard myself asking, "...what is this?"

Hans visibly stiffened, awkwardly removing his hand from Anna. His fingers scratched against one auburn sideburn at his temple as he muttered to her, "You... haven't told her yet?"

"Told me what?"

I knew. Deep down inside, I knew. It was so painfully obvious now, how could I not? But still, I needed to hear Anna say it.

"Told you that…" she stretched the last word out before trailing off, gnawing on her bottom lip as she poked the tips of her index fingers together and her eyes darted frantically about. Finally, in a voice so tiny I almost couldn't hear it, she blurted out, "Hans is my new boyfriend?"

Annnnd there it was.

...wait, was this what she'd been freaking out about all weekend? It was, wasn't it? Oh gosh, it all made so much sense now! Why she always seemed to change the subject whenever I'd asked her about the new guy she was seeing, why she kept clamming up whenever I'd approached her, why she ran away practically every time I'd so much as uttered a single word to her. It wasn't anything _I'd_ done, _she_ was the one who felt like she'd-

...hang on, back up a second. Rewind to the conversation I'd just been having in the Indigo Room. Hadn't Mother said… I could have sworn… Had I misunderstood? No… no, I don't think so…

Pretty sure it had been stated in no uncertain terms that I was still expected to marry Hans.

But that didn't make any sense! Not unless-

I looked at her sharply. "His parents don't know. Father and Mother don't either."

"We don't what?"

I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sound of Mother's voice. I'd forgotten about her. Really, I'd forgotten about _everyone_ else. Mother, Father, the rest of my family, even Lea who's hand I was still holding… every last one of them, completely wiped from my brain. For a moment there, all I'd been aware of was my sister, my ex-fiancé, and me. Now the rest of them were crowding out the door behind Lea and me, many still with scowls twisting their faces. Mother's expression, on the other hand, was that of surprise as she spotted who was standing next to Anna. "Hans? We didn't know you were coming by today. To what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?"

As Hans gave a weak smile and struggled for some sort of polite response, Anna piped up with, "Could everyone excuse Elsa and me real quick? We'll just be a sec, promise!" She grabbed me by the arm and dragged me several steps away, leaving Hans looking rather distraught at being left to fend for himself before our family.

Well… our family _and_ Lea, but I doubt Hans was going to be getting much assistance from _that_ corner.

Once Anna and I were far enough away where a hushed conversation would not be overheard, she snatched my shoulders and whispered hastily, "Sis! I was gonna tell you, I swear! Mom and Dad too. But it just… it never seemed like the right time, ya know? I-"

"How long?" I cut her off, my voice flat.

Her forehead wrinkled. "...how long…?"

"How long have you and Hans been…" I looked away, my nose scrunching up slightly.

"Oh! After you two broke up, definitely, _definitely_ after!" she insisted with several firm nods. Then her face blanched, "You weren't thinking that...that he and I would've... before you and he... No! _No_ , we'd never do that to you! Not ever! Not in one billion, trillion years! Never, ever, ever, _ever-_ "

"How long _after_ we broke up?" I pressed, meeting her eyes now with a frown.

Here she grimaced, sucking in a breath through her teeth and turning her head away as she rubbed her elbow. "...the day after?"

...okay, I didn't mind the fact that Hans had moved on. It was actually almost kind of shocking how little I cared. I guess it was just further confirmation that I'd made the right decision by not going through with the wedding. Besides, how hypocritical of me would it be if I _did_ care? Here I was, crushing on Lea for crying out loud! But that's all it was - a _crush_. And at least in my case, it'd taken several weeks to develop.

Hans had waited a _day_ to move on. And he hadn't moved on with just anyone, he'd moved on with my _sister_. And since then, the two of them had probably been… _doing_ things, ugh! To think, the guy I'd been engaged to for a year, doing god only knows what with my baby sister less than twenty-four hours after I'd-

...well, to be fair… he probably knew the "Lea and me" story by now, so he'd probably thought I'd been cheating on him for months now...

...then _again_ , Hans didn't know about "Lea and me" the day after I broke it off. Heck, _I_ didn't know about "Lea and me" the day after I broke it off! I didn't even _actually_ know Lea then! So it's not even like Hans had had the moral high ground when he'd… when he and Anna had…

"-not like we _meant_ for it to happen, it just sorta, ya know… _happened!_ " Apparently, Anna was mid-babble as I tuned back into whatever she was saying. "I mean, I always thought his eyes were kinda dreamy, but he was your _fiancé_ so I was all, _woah_ there girl, hands off, no touchy, big friggin' no-no there! But then, all of a sudden, he _wasn't_ your fiancé, and well… I was there, and _he_ was there, and we just… happened!"

...there was something…

"And I wanted to tell you, oh my _gawd_ , you have no idea how badly I wanted to tell you! I didn't want either of our parents to find out before you did, I wanted _you_ to be the first to know and for you to hear it from me! But we just kept putting it off and off and off-"

...something… something my subconscious was trying to tell me right now…

"-and off until finally! This weekend! I said it's now or never, damn it! It was going to be Friday night, I was going to have him over for dinner with Mom and Dad at the same time you brought over Lea! But then I just… dunno, I chickened out and told him to stay away!"

...scratching, _picking_ at the back of my mind…

"So then I said Saturday! _Definitely_ Saturday! At Grandfather's birthday party! Think of it, it would have been perfect, like… like our grand debut! But then I friggin' wimped out _again!_ I was just really scared how you might react… I didn't want to see you hurt or…"

...god, what _was_ it? I almost had it, it was literally on the tip of my-

"But finally, I said you know what? I just gotta rip off that stupid bandaid! Today! It _had_ to be today! That's why I brought Hans here, now, so we could finally just-"

"Why today?" I asked abruptly.

She blinked once, then twice. "...what?"

I fixed her with a hard stare. "Why did it _have_ to be today? Why this weekend? Why… when Lea was here?"

She froze, eyes growing round. Then she was tugging at one of her pigtail braids, looking anywhere but at me. "I don't know what you-"

"This is why you convinced me to trick Father and Mother into believing I was dating Lea." My frown deepened. She flinched and said nothing. I was breathing heavily through my nose now as my chest burned. "It is, isn't it? You knew our parents wouldn't have approved of you two. That they still wanted me, as the eldest, to marry Hans. So you thought that... that if I showed up on their doorstep with a boyfriend who was their worst nightmare, that it would somehow… what, make you and Hans not look as bad? Lessen the blow? That Mother and Father would use up all their freaking out on me and have none left over for you?"

She gave a small "...no?" with a half-hearted shrug. My eyelids drooped. Then she sighed, "Okay, maybe a little bit… but that was just a small part of it! The _smallest_ part! A teensy-weensy, itty-bitty smidge of it, I swear! The main, big reason I suggested the Lea plan was because I really thought it would help you! That it would be just the boost you needed to stand up to Mom and Dad and get you through this big talk with them and-" Anna's words drowned in sharp gasp. "Frick, the _talk!_ " Her eyes drifted back over to where the rest of our family was still gathered. You could see her putting two and two together, could all but hear the gears beginning to turn in her mind. "...was that happening right now? I didn't miss it, did I?"

That was it.

Right there.

The last straw, apparently.

I was done. _So_ done. Done with the lies, the expectations, the not getting any sleep, the panic, the stress, the fear, all of it… I just let it all go. I don't know how. I'd never been able to before. It had always seemed impossible, but now it was so simple, so easy. All of it, just gone with a tiny snap inside my brain. In its place, an almost eerie peace had settled over my heart. I knew what to do now. It was so clear, so obvious. I turned away from Anna and started to walk calmly back towards the others.

"Sis?" I heard Anna whisper after me, but I just kept going. "...Elsa? What are you-"

"Father. Mother," I came to a stop in front of them, pulling their attention away from whatever discussion they were in with the rest of the group. All eyes turned to me now. I could sense it in all of their looks - the curiosity from my parents, the thinly-worn patience of my aunt, the simmering fury coming off both Grandfather and the Duke in waves. Normally all of it would be enough to break me, but not this time. Instead, I just let it all wash harmlessly over me. I could feel Lea at my side and I took what little comfort I could from that. Then I drew in a long, deep breath and began.

"Lea and I aren't dating. We never were." I stated it simply, as if I were merely discussing the weather. Mother's and Father's gazes widened in shock while low grumbles and murmurs passed amongst my other relatives. I went on, "I didn't even meet him until after I ran away from my wedding. He's just a friend, one who was willing to go along with a ridiculous and what I can see now was quite honestly _pointless_ plan.

"I didn't run away because of him, he had nothing to do with it. I ran away because of me. I did it for _me_. I wasn't happy. I didn't want it… not the wedding, not the life you'd laid out for me, not the future you'd so carefully planned, none of it. I needed to be on my own, I needed the freedom and space to make my own decisions and to be me, to decide what I wanted and what was best for me. It's _my_ life. I get to decide how I want to live it and none of you get a say in it. Period." I stood a little taller now, hitching my chin and narrowing my eyes, "And if you don't like it, well then that's too bad."

A hush fell all around us. My parents' brows were furrowed as they exchanged glances. Father was the first to speak, "Elsa, perhaps we should take a seat somewhere and talk about th-"

"How _dare_ you, you ungrateful girl?!" Grandfather suddenly erupted in a snarl, face a dark, blotchy red as he stomped forward. "I will not stand for such insolence in my presence! No granddaughter of mine is allowed to speak to us in such a manner ever, you hear me?"

My eyelashes twitched. An almost imperceptible wince. The only reaction I gave to his outburst. My gaze then shifted from him back over to my parents. Whether or not they were in agreement with Grandfather's statement, they kept it to themselves, remaining mute on the subject with small grimaces. Locking my eyes on Grandfather once more, I said evenly, "Very well then. I guess that makes me no granddaughter of yours."

I started to turn to leave, but then paused. Looking back to my parents one final time, I tacked on, "Oh, and the next time you try to marry me off to someone, you might want to make sure he's not in another relationship already."

Both their postures snapped straight at that. "Hans?" Mother asked, turning her focus on him now. "What does she mean by that?"

"I, uh…" he laughed feebly, sidestepping in a poor attempt to hide behind Anna. As for her, she just gaped at me as I turned my back on them all and walked away. I could see Maren out of my peripheral, her jaw slack as well, but with a smile tugging up at the corners of her lips as she brought her hands together in a slow, silent clap.

"You stop right there, young lady!" Grandfather was shouting after me, but I did not stop. "You will do as you're told or so help me, that's _it_ for you! Step one foot outside this house and you're cut off! Disowned! We'll have nothing more to do you with, you hear me?! Nothing!"

Still, I kept walking. I could hear a single pair of footsteps behind me. Once they caught up to walk along beside me, I glanced over, knowing I'd be greeted by Lea's grinning face. I told him, "You can put them on now."

He cocked his head at my words. But then it clicked, and his grin stretched wider. "You sure?"

"Positive," I said flatly, staring straight ahead once more. I could still hear Grandfather yelling his tantrum after me back there. "Go nuts."

"Oh hell yeah!" He reached inside his leather jacket, whipping out the heart-shades and slipping them onto his nose. Then he spun into an about-face, striding along backwards next to me now. "Suck it, bitches!" he crowed back at them all, throwing his hands up to flip the double bird as we turned to disappear around a corner.

That's right.

Suck it, bitches.

* * *

_**Author's Note:** _ _THERE'S some of the drama you guys have all been waiting for! xD And worry not, more drama to come the next chapter... the fun kind of drama, hehehe :3 Anyhoo, so THAT's why Anna's been acting all squirrelly! How 'bout it ya'll, didja see it coming from a mile away? xD Hopefully I surprised at least one or two of you with that lil twist xP And oh gosh, when it rains, it friggin' POURS! So much being thrown at Elsa all at once xD Hope the drama turned out okay! As you've read through 27 chapters of my writing by now (at least! I'm sure there's those of you who've read my other stuff too tho xP), you've probably gathered by now that I'm more about the sass, humor, and mindless fluff and less about… *gestures towards last half of above chapter* THIS. But I did the best I could and that's all anyone can ask for! Also… those damn heart-shaped sunglasses, I swear xD They were just supposed to be a one time throw away gag for the yacht chapter, but apparently my Lea muse liked them so much that he kept finding an excuse to bring them back every damn chance he got! It wasn't supposed to be a running gag, it really wasn't! But hot damn, if the Fire Boi wouldn't look good in those puppies xD_

_Thank you so much for reading, especially to those of you who have left a kudos and shared with me your thoughts and feelings on this story so far! Remember, feedback is not only welcome, but highly encouraged and super appreciated!_


	28. Chapter 28

Turns out getting disowned is _exhausting_.

Oh sure, there'd been the initial rush of "I did it! I finally stood for myself to my family!" Then came the panic of "...oh dear god, what did I just do?!" Followed swiftly by the euphoria of "I'm finally free! Really and truly free!" Plus several other feelings that were all colors of the emotion rainbow, so many in fact that it became difficult to keep track of them all. They'd coursed through my body like electricity, keeping me going long enough to return to my old bedroom, hastily pack up what little I'd brought with me, march out the front door of my parent's mansion and straight into Lea's car before he'd sped off with us.

It didn't take long however. Just a few minutes on the road and poof! All that surging energy had scattered and abandoned me, like fleeing rats off a sinking ship. I slumped into the seat, suddenly feeling empty and so very, _very_ tired. I didn't talk and Lea didn't try to make me. Instead, he just left me alone to listen to the low music coming out the radio as I stared vacantly out the car window. I suspected he was giving me a chance to process everything that'd just happened, figuring I'd speak up when I was ready. _If_ I was ever ready.

I tried to process it all. I really did try. But it was like a thick, silent fog had descended over my mind, making thinking difficult. The lack of sleep from the night before seemed to finally be catching up with me. It was easier to just give in to the white noise of my thoughts as I watched the landscape outside blur by, my eyelids growing heavier with each passing mile. Eventually, I dozed off.

When I slowly stirred awake later, it was to the faint smell of leather mixed with a familiar cinnamony boy scent. Peeking one groggy eyelid open, I found myself still in the car seat but with Lea's jacket folded and tucked behind my head now as some sort of makeshift pillow. The car was no longer moving and the engine was off - perhaps _that_ was what had woken me up.

"Rise n' shine, sleepyhead!" came Lea's chipper voice as I felt his hand on my shoulder, gently shaking me.

Rubbing my eyes, I glanced at where he stood next to the vehicle, one elbow propped on the top edge of my open car door as he grinned down at me. "How long was I out?" I mumbled, giving a little stretch to work out some of the kinks in my neck and back.

"Few hours," he shrugged as I noticed he was still wearing those silly heart sunglasses, only now they were perched atop his head. "You looked like you could use the Z's and I didn't wanna disturb ya, so I've just been driving in circles round Twilight Town for a while now. C'mon," he tossed his chin to one side, gesturing for me to climb out of the car.

I yawned and unbuckled my seatbelt, then felt his hand on mine as he helped me out. The sun was hanging low, making me wince and shield my eyes against it. Blinking a couple times to let my vision adjust, I then looked around and my brow furrowed as I recognized the parking lot we were in. "...the mall? Why are we here?"

"What d'ya say?" he tapped a finger lightly to my nose, his grin twitching wider. "Up for a lil adventure?"

I stared blankly at him for a few seconds. But his smile was infectious and I could feel a matching one slowly tugging at my lips. "Sure."

He retrieved his jacket, shrugging into it before slamming my door shut and locking it. Then his fingers laced through mine once more and he led me inside. I knew where he was taking me even before he turned us down the deserted wing of the mall that was under construction. It didn't take him long to pick the locked door and soon I was carefully following him up those winding, rickety old steps. As we reached the top of the clocktower and stepped onto the outer walkway, a warm breeze greeted us. I let him guide me around towards the clock face side and as we turned the corner, a tiny gasp escaped me.

By now the sun has dipped halfway below the horizon, setting the sky ablaze with orange and crimson. Soft, billowing clouds painted the heavens above while a warm, golden hue had settled like a blanket over the cityscape below. It made the buildings almost seem to glow and sparkle in the twilight as if by some sort of ancient yet whimsical magic. The sight of it all was beautiful. Overwhelming. Breathtaking.

"You're right," I murmured at last, unable to take my eyes off the view. "Sunset really does make this place sing."

"Told ya," he beamed, plonking his rear down onto the ledge and letting his feet dangle off the side. "I like to come here whenever I've had a rough day that's kicked the shit outta me. It usually helps me sort out my thoughts and feelings. Centers me. Gets me in a better headspace." He patted the spot behind him in invitation and I obliged, taking a seat next to him. Then he was reaching inside his jacket and pulling out two little red lollipops. He ripped the wrapper off of one, popping it into his mouth before offering me the other one.

I quirked an eyebrow down at it. "Not Sea Salt ice cream? Isn't that sacrilege? Won't Xion and Roxas kick you out of the club?"

He smirked around the sucker and shrugged. "I won't tell if you won't. 'Sides, I know you're not the biggest fan of Sea Salt, so figured this could just as easily do in a pinch."

"...thanks," I smiled softly, taking it from him.

"Course! Now just sit back, relax, and drink in all that majesty," he stretched a hand out wide before him to indicate said majesty before leaning back, bracing himself on his palms. "I'll be here whenever you wanna talk about it. Or not. I can also be here to just chill until you're ready for me to drive you home. Point is, I'm here for you, whatever ya need."

I didn't say anything to that at first, just gazed out once more at the amazing sight below. I inhaled slowly, as if trying to breathe it all in as I watched the thin, distant smoke plume coming off the tram while it wove its journey throughout the city. My hands were in my lap, fingers idly twisting the lollipop one way then the other then back again, leaving its plastic wrap unopened.

Since waking up in the car, I hadn't really given much thought to all that had happened today. I think part of me preferred to remain blissfully content pretending none of it had occurred. That it'd all just been a dream. I knew the second that I gave it so much as even an ounce of real thought, that it'd all suddenly become so very real. I was dreading it. But it also seemed I couldn't put it off anymore.

The memories of just a few short hours earlier were beginning to creep back into my mind unbidden, refusing to be ignored any longer. They welled up in my chest painfully until finally bursting out of me in the form of a shaky but derisive huff of a laugh. "So… guess I'm no longer a Fryse, huh?"

Lea snerked, drawing one knee up to his chest while swinging the other leg. "Somehow I doubt it's that simple."

"Grandfather seemed to think it was," I sighed heavily, setting my hand down beside me on the ledge. Apparently next to Lea's, for I could feel his thumb brushing against my pinky.

"Forget him," he razzed his tongue. An impressive feat around the lollipop. "He's just a big, whiny man-baby in a grumpy old blowhard suit throwing a fit and struggling to stay relevant. We didn't exactly hear your folks singing the same tune as him, did we?"

"...they weren't exactly disagreeing with him or leaping to my defense either," I hung my head as my eyes started to prickle. I blinked the sensation away.

"Hey now," he said gently, covering my hand with his. The warmth from his palm was soothing. "If anyone knows how hard it can be to stand up to family, it's you. Betcha it ain't easy for your pops to go against his old man's wishes. 'Sides, today was a lot, not just for you but for your folks too. Give them some time to let it all sink in. Who knows, before long they could be telling Gramps to take a hike and reaching out to you to try and patch things up."

I shook my head with a wry snort. "You don't know them like I do. Even if by some miracle they realize they had no right to be so controlling and overbearing, they're too stubborn and proud to ever admit it. No, rocks will break out into song and dance before _they_ ever speak to me again, much less admit they were wrong."

"Wanna put munny on that?" he challenged with a grin and I just rolled my eyes. "You'll see. Just you wait. But for now, the important thing is ya did it. The hard part's over and your life is your own now to do whatever you want with it."

"Suppose that's true. It feels like a weight has been lifted," I smiled as I looked out onto the sunset once more.

My heart really _was_ feeling lighter than it had in a long time. I was free to do whatever I wanted… now if only I knew _what_ exactly that was. But ah well, one step at a time. For now, I'd just be happy with the fact that I had a job, some friends, and was tentatively exploring the world of theater. That was enough for me at the moment. I could figure out the rest later. I had the time now and nothing holding me back. Not anymore.

I glanced at Lea out of the corner of my eye, nose wrinkling slightly in amusement. "Can I just say though that you deserve an Oscar?"

He turned his head towards me, eyes crinkling. "Do I? What for?"

"When you got all in a huff over Grandfather trying to pay you to dump me and get lost," I hummed a low laugh, shaking my head. "I have to hand it to you, even I thought you were really mad when you came barging into the room to get me."

"Oh, I was hella pissed actually."

"...you were?" Both eyebrows shot up my forehead at his nod. "But why? It's not as if we were ever really dating. Heck, we were planning on _breaking up_ ," my fingers bounced in air quotes around the two words, "in a few weeks anyway. You could have just agreed to it, taken Grandfather's munny then did as he asked, at least as far as he ever knew. He would have been none the wiser."

Lea scratched at a spot behind his ear, lollipop stick shifting as his lips pursed to one side. "Well I… I guess it just ticked me off that the asshole woulda tried to pull something like that with his own granddaughter. That if I was someone you'd really been in love with, how he woulda just gone and broken your heart like that and expected me to help him do it." His eyes narrowed on the reddening sky, "Old coot's just lucky his brittle osteoporosis bones kept me from punching the crap outta him."

I blinked at him. Then one corner of my lips tugged up. "You're sweet, you big old softie," I told him, leaning into his side and resting my head on his shoulder.

"I, uh… shucks, El, you're gonna make me blush," he chuckled. I felt his arm come up slowly to wrap around my shoulders, squeezing them in a reassuring hug. Then he cleared his throat," So… your sister and your ex, huh?"

A grimace pinched my face. Somehow, I'd almost forgotten that part. I think I'd been trying to block it out. "...yeah."

"Ouch," he summed up eloquently.

"Tell me about it." I hesitated, staring down at the sucker as it still twirled to and fro between my finger and thumb. "They got together the day after the wedding fell through. Imagine… the centerpieces had barely been carted off by the caterers before Hans was jumping my little sister. And this whole thing?" I pointed back and forth between the two of us, "You and me? All just Anna's ploy to get Mother and Father so angry with me that they'd have nothing left when they found out about her and Hans."

"What? No, that can't be right. Anna cares about ya too much to ever do something like that to you."

I frowned. "Well… she _did_ say she honestly thought it would help me deal with Mother and Father… that that was the main reason she pushed me into it. But she also admitted that a small part of it was for her own selfish reasons." There it was again. A tiny, aching twinge in my chest. I shook my head against his shoulder, feeling the material of his shirt rub against my cheek. "I just can't believe that she'd use me like that. That she'd go through with such a ridiculous, half-baked, harebrained scheme just to try and avoid getting into a fight with our parents."

His whole body shook with a snort. "Says the girl who just went through with a ridiculous, half-baked harebrained scheme just to try and avoid getting into a fight with her parents."

...doh.

Elsa, Queen of Putting Her Foot In Her Mouth.

"Touché," I grumbled, scowling straight ahead. "To be fair, it was still _Anna's_ harebrained scheme. I was just the fool that went along with it."

Lea laughed, "Still, my point is ya both know how difficult your folks can be, so you can probably understand a lil where she was coming from."

A sigh. "Maybe a bit. Even so, at least I never threw her under the bus like she did me. I... don't know if I can ever forgive her for this."

"Give it time," his hand gently smoothed up and down my arm. "A day or two. Let yourself cool off. When Anna comes to talk to you - and trust me, she will - just try and listen with an open mind, 'kay? I have zero doubt you two crazy kids'll work this whole mess out. Plus ya gotta keep in mind, it's all thanks to her and Hans that you got that last kick in the rear you needed to finally stand up to your snooty family and tell 'em what's what and just straight up lay down the law. That oughta score her a point or two at least, right?"

My eyebrows knit together. "I guess… by that bit of twisted logic, yes, Anna showing up with Hans was the tipping point that made me decide enough was enough. If it weren't for her, I might have never told my parents the truth or-" my eyes widened with a sharp intake of breath. "Oh gosh, the _truth!_ The whole mall- Everyone still thinks we're- That you and I are still- What are we supposed to tell them now?!"

I felt him shrug, heard his fingers scratching at his cheek. "...the truth?"

I groaned, "Ugh, wouldn't it be simpler just to say we broke up?"

"...yeah… maybe…" His voice grew quieter, more distant, with a note of… _something_ else, but I wasn't quite sure what.

My lower lip tucked in in thought. Then, "You're probably relieved... what with this insanity finally being all over and done with. Now you can get your life back."

"I dunno," he hummed, resting his cheek atop my head as he gave my shoulders another small squeeze, thumb tracing a small circle against my arm. "Was just sorta getting used to it all. Gonna miss being your fake boyfriend."

A grin pulled at one side of my mouth. "...it was kind of fun, wasn't it? I think I'll miss being your fake girlfriend too. Almost makes me a little sad."

"Well buck up! Got just the thing to chase away those post-make-believe-relationship blues," he released me now, lightly rubbing my back as I pulled away. I watched as he was once more reaching inside his leather jacket, this time pulling out a-

"You've _got_ to be kidding me," I deadpanned as he slipped the cartoon-lip sunglasses onto my face. I didn't even fight it. I knew it would have been a losing battle. "Just how many of these things did you steal?"

"Just the two," he smirked, flipping his heart-shades down to sit on the bridge of his nose. Lollipop finished, he flicked away the little white stick only to whip out yet another sucker to replace it. "Smoke 'em if you got 'em," he chirped, tearing the plastic off before stabbing the candy between his lips.

...well, when in Rome, I guess.

I opened mine as well and closed my mouth around it. Huh. Cinnamon. Who'da thunk?

"Atta girl," he chuckled, nudging my shoulder with his. "Rocking those sweet ass shades to boot."

I wanted to roll my eyes at him. But it would have been halfhearted at best and let's face it, the effect would've been totally lost behind the lip-glasses anyhow. Instead, a tiny laugh bubbled out of me whether I wanted it to or not.

So there we were. Sitting atop a mall clocktower, eating candy and watching the sunset through cheap, novelty sunglasses. And even though Operation Boyfriend But Shh Not Really had royally crashed and burned and now laid shattered in a million pieces that I still had to clean up and sort out… in that exact moment, somehow…

...somehow things didn't seem all that bad.

* * *

"Ya sure you're okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine," I said for what felt like the thousandth time. At Lea's dubious squint, I laughed softly, "Really."

I mean, I thought I was.

At least, I _seemed_ to be as we made our way back down the clocktower's decrepit wooden steps. I wasn't sure exactly how long we'd stayed up there. Long enough for early night to fall and for the first stars to begin lightly dotting the sky, however much time that had taken. It'd been nice, just sitting there watching the reds fade to purples and blues. Comforting, in fact. An almost zen-like calm had fallen over me. I didn't blame Lea for being skeptical however. This was _me_ we were talking about here. And after the day I'd had, even I was still kind of anticipating the inevitable meltdown that would totally be on brand for me and had still yet to come. Maybe it was just lurking in the shadows, lying in wait and ready to pounce when I least expected it. Or maybe it wouldn't come at all. Maybe watching the gorgeous sunset had been just the thing I needed to disperse it before it even began.

I could hope so, at least. Here's crossing my fingers!

We got to the bottom of the stairs and rejoined the mall proper. The stores were still open but it looked like closing time would soon be upon us, so while the crowd had thinned considerably by now, there were still some shoppers milling about making their last minute purchases. Just as those double doors leading outside to the parking lot came into view, Lea suddenly stopped, tapping the side of his fist into his palm.

"Almost forgot, gotta pick something up. I'll be super quick and meet ya at the car." He was about to take off but hesitated mid-turn, looking back at me with a small frown. "...you _sure_ you're-"

"I'm _okay_ ," I insisted, huffing out a chuckle. My hand gave his shoulder a small shove, "Hurry up and go already."

However instead of going, he grinned down at me and stepped closer, his hand lifting towards my cheek. But then it froze midway, hanging there for one very long second before he hastily snatched it back to ruffle his hair instead with a weak laugh. "Heh… be back in a flash!" Then he bolted, vanishing into the throng.

I just stood there for a few seconds, staring after him as I bit my bottom lip. Pretty sure he'd been about to kiss my forehead out of habit, but had thought better of it at the last minute. We were in a weird grey area at the moment. Officially, our little dating act had come to a close. But no one at the mall knew that yet, so… were things like that still okay? At least for a little while longer? Probably not. We wouldn't want to complicate or confuse matters. He'd probably made the right call stopping himself. The smart and sensible call. We just needed to quit cold turkey.

It would be for the best.

Still, knowing that did nothing to ease the dull ache I now felt in my chest. I couldn't help feeling a little disappointed. I kind of wished he _had_ given me that forehead kiss. Just one last time. Gosh, it was only now hitting me how accustomed I'd grown to all his little touches. I really was going to miss being his girlfriend, even if it had all just been for show.

Curse that boy and his stupid dating embargo!

Hugging myself with a sigh, I walked slowly out the mall exit. The night air felt good on my skin as I took my time crossing the parking lot towards Lea's car. True to his word, I wasn't waiting there long at all before I spotted him emerging from the shopping center to jog towards me with a white plastic bag in hand. He opened my door first before sliding across his hood to let himself in on the driver side.

"No peeking now," he winked at me as he plopped down into his seat, handing the bag to me.

I blinked down at it as I held it between my hands. It was knotted tightly at the top, making sneaking a peek not really an option anyway. There was no logo on the bag, nothing to identify where it'd come from, nor was it see-through. The only thing I could determine was it felt box-shaped inside. Arching an eyebrow, I held it up to my ear with a little shake.

Snerking, Lea's grip closed around my wrist, forcing my hands still. "None of that either."

My eyelids drooped at him but I relented, settling the bag into my lap and buckling myself in. Lea did the same before turning the key in the ignition, backing us out of the parking spot and hitting the road.

A few minutes later found me unlocking the door to my apartment and stepping inside with a, "Hello? Anyone home?" My call was greeted with silence from the totally dark room inside. Frowning, I flicked on the switch and as everything lit up, I noticed the door to my roomies' bedroom open and black inside. Nope, not in there either.

"Huh. Wonder where they got to," Lea mused from where he stood in the doorway behind me, toting my luggage he'd so gallantly volunteered to carry up for me.

"Their car wasn't in its parking space," I pointed out as I made room for him, moving towards the dining table to set the mystery bag down on it. "Figured Riku might just be making an emergency baby cravings run for Rayne and that we'd at least find her up here still… maybe they went to a movie?" I guessed, pulling out my phone to see if I'd missed any texts from either of them. Unfortunately, that's when I discovered the battery had died. Which made sense now that I thought about it. It _had_ been running unplugged since the crack of dawn when I'd used it to pull up every variation of the scotcheroo recipe known to humankind.

Setting my bags down next to a kitchen chair, one of his hands went to his hip while the other rubbed the back of his head. "Well damn. Was hoping they'd be around to feed ya."

"Feed me?" I echoed, a crease forming between my eyebrows as I turned to face him, leaning back against the backrest of the couch.

He snorted at me from across the dining table. "Don't think I haven't noticed how you haven't had a bite to eat all day, missy."

"Not true," I folded my arms under my chest and looked away with a tiny scoff. "I'll have you know I filled up on scotcheroo batter all morning."

"Sure, cuz that's healthy," his eyes narrowed over his grin. "You didn't have anything at the party last night either. Maybe I should order you some takeout," he muttered as he pulled out his phone and swiped to unlock his screen.

I looked up towards the ceiling with a sigh and a shake of my head. "You don't have to take care of me, you know. I said I was okay."

"You also said you don't know how to cook. I can't leave ya to fend for yourself and starve," he said distractedly, frowning down at his phone while his thumb flicked across his screen a few times. Probably scrolling through whatever food options were still open at this hour.

"I wouldn't _starve_ , I do know how to use a microwave," I countered, hand idly reaching for my braid. Except… no braid. That's right, it was still up in that haphazard bun. A rather _uncomfortable_ , haphazard bun, I might add. I pulled it free, letting my hair fall down around my shoulders as my fingers shook it out. Ah, so much better. "Rayne's always leaving leftovers in the fridge for me to heat up."

"Ya sure? Really, I don't mind making a quick food run for y-" he glanced up from the screen to me just as his fingers seemed to have a malfunction and dropped his phone. He gave a tiny yelp and fumbled with it for a second before catching it firmly in hand once again, breathing a soft _whew!_

I arched an eyebrow with a snerk. "You doing alright there?"

"Yeah, uh… yeah! These things are slippery lil bastards, huh?" he waggled the phone in the air with a feeble chuckle, his face reddening from what I guessed would be embarrassment over his little bout of clumsiness. Pocketing it again, he took a step back towards the front door as he crossed his arms, wedging his hands into his armpits. "Well if ya think you've got the food situation covered, I'll probably just be headin' out then."

I frowned, pushing myself up off the sofa backrest. "You're leaving?" I'd been under the impression that he was going to stick around at least for a little while longer. The company would have been welcome, especially with Rayne and Riku not home.

He ambled another step back, looking down as he scratched the tip of his nose. "Yup, got a lotta… _homework_. Yeah! Tons of it. _Mountains_ of it back at my place just... calling my name, heh! So, ya know… better get to it!"

"Oh… yes, of course," I mumbled, trying to keep the disappointment out of my voice. Obviously he had schoolwork to get back to. He'd had no time to do it all weekend thanks to me, so he was probably looking at a heavy backlog. I'd taken up too much of his time already burdening him with my problems. It was time to let him go. Taking a deep breath, I put on a brave front and forced a smile. "Have a good night. And thank you for… well, for everything. It… _All_ of it has meant the world to me."

He hesitated for a few seconds, frowning but expression otherwise unreadable. Then he dragged his hand across his face with a tired-sounding laugh. "Don't mention it. Just… do me a favor? Get something substantial in your stomach before breaking into these," he approached the table once more, retrieving the little white bag and holding it up. "Til then, we'll just tuck them away in here so they don't melt," he said, moving towards the fridge.

Melt? Huh. Come to think of it, it _had_ slightly been cold to the touch, but I'd hardly noticed it at the time. My head tipped to one side, "...do I get to know what they are now?"

"Guess it can't hurt to let the cat outta the bag at this point," he opened the freezer door, placing it inside before shooting me a grin. "Do the words Frozen Heart mean anything to you?"

I stiffened. "...as in the ice cream?"

"Yup!" Lea beamed now, closing the door again and propping his shoulder against it. "Whole pack of 'em! That's your fave, right?"

Blinking a couple times, I nodded slowly. I could feel it. This… weird, funny feeling in my chest. "How… When did you figure it out?"

He gave a half-shrug. "Told ya, El. Gotta gift. Knew it since day one, actually. Just kept the lil guessing game up cuz it gave me an excuse to talk to ya all the time and hopefully bring you a laugh. But figured you could use it after the day you've had. Just what the doc ordered, chocked fulla all the stuff you like - mint chocolate chip with a full strawberry in the middle, or the 'heart' at the frozen center, all coated in crunchy, crystallize sugar shell, aka the ic-"

I don't know how it happened. One second, I was just standing there with the space of the whole kitchen between him and me. The next, I'd closed the distance somehow and was colliding into his chest, forcing a small surprised _oof_ out of him as my arms wrapped around his waist, hanging on for dear life. I felt his whole body tense with a confused, "El?"

"I'm not," I muffled into his shirt.

"...you're not…?"

"I'm not okay!" I looked up at him now, not letting go. My calm had cracked and feeling Lea's arms closing around me only served to shatter it completely. Every inch of me felt like an exposed nerve as all those emotions came crashing painfully in now. "I'm not! Nothing is right! Nothing… nothing except for you! You, with your warmth and your smiles and your ice cream and… and your silly nicknames and ridiculous sunglasses and your lizard and your sappy movies and your college course catalogues and… and…"

I didn't even know what I was trying to say anymore, so I seriously doubted Lea did either. He didn't seem to mind however, his hand with a slight tremor to it coming up to brush along my cheek, sweep a few pale strands behind my ear, slowly stroke down the full length of my hair. He just nodded and let me go on, his gaze softening as he rested his forehead against mine.

"...and everyone _else_ is just so… so… I mean, Grandfather with his birthday party of judgement! And Mother! Mother and her sneaky lullaby, using the nose trick against me! The _nose_ trick! That thing is _sacred!_ But no, it was all just so she could find goth contraband for Aunt Yelena to throw in my face! And Hans! Hans, with his stupid sideburns! His stupid, sister-groping sideburns! And Anna! I still can't believe she… that she'd… I mean, I made her scotcheroos! _Scotcheroos!_ Well, at least I _tried_ to make them, but still, that should count for _something_ , right?! And-" I felt his thumb wiping away something wet at the corner of my eye. Tears. I hadn't even known they were there. With a tiny jolt, I gave a weak laugh, "And I'm a total babbling mess! Sorry, I… I just need to not be thinking about this right now. Distract me, please. Anything to get my mind off of-"

And then he was kissing me.

I lost all sense of my surroundings as it all just seemed to fade away, no longer important. Every last thought in my head was obliterated. I could no longer tell left from right, heads from tails… nothing. I knew nothing except the warm caress of his lips against mine. Nothing except his scent, so familiar and yet in this moment, suddenly somehow new and intoxicating. My knees buckled but his arm wrapped around my waist, catching me and trapping me against him. His other hand had tangled itself in my hair as my fingers slid up his chest, clutching his shirt for support. I was dizzy and lightheaded and giddy all at once, my world completely turned upside down and-

Oh.

Oh wow…

...so _that's_ what this is supposed to feel like.

All too soon Lea broke it off, drawing his head back slightly with a soft, shaky breath that I didn't so much hear as felt against my lips. He dragged his gaze from where it lingered on my mouth up to look into my eyes, his own now hooded and dark as they searched mine. Still trying to piece my scrambled brain back together, I struggled to find words and the only ones I could come up with were a breathy, "...not… quite the distraction I had in mind. I was thinking something... more along the lines of a movie?"

His eyes widened and his muscles went rigid. Then in the blink of an eye, he'd released me and backed away several steps, shaking his head as his hands raked through his crimson spikes. "Shit. Fuck! I shouldn't have done that. I had no right to- _Crap_ , I'm sorry! I'm so sorry, El! God fucking damn it, what the hell is the matter with me? I'm so stupid! I _never_ shoulda-"

I abruptly threw myself at him again, arms hugging his neck and pulling his head down as my lips found his once more. He staggered with a sharp intake through his nose, his whole body going stock still. My heart raced as I molded against him, sinking into his pleasant body heat.

Slowly, his mouth responded as his trembling hands reached for me, trailing down my sides, exploring the curve of my waist before coming to rest on my hips, gripping them tightly as he tugged me more firmly against him. My fingers toyed with the hairs at the nape of his neck, eliciting a soft groan from him as his kiss became more fervid, filled with such… such… raw, unbridled _need_. Abruptly, he was pushing me up against the fridge, pinning my body between it and him.

Something fell with a clatter. A magnet? I didn't really know. Nor did I really care. But the sound was enough to snap Lea back to his senses as he pulled away with a gasp and suddenly held me at arms length. "No! This isn't right! You're vulnerable right now, I shouldn't be- Shit, I don't want you to think I-" He released a frustrated snarl, pressing a fist to his mouth as he backed further away, angrily pacing now. Then, "I should go."

He turned, hastily making his way towards the front door. Halfway there however, he hesitated, steps faltering as he glanced back towards me. He swallowed hard, something in his eyes telling me his flimsy resolve was _this_ close to breaking. "...I need to go," he repeated, voice hoarse yet determined now as he pushed forward, reaching the door and letting himself out, slamming it shut behind him.

I was still propped up against the fridge, barely standing. The room was quiet except for my soft pants to catch my breath and the booming of my rapid pulse in my ears. My face was hot and I could still feel the sweet ghost of his lips on mine. Feel my whole body buzzing from his touch.

...he was right. Goddamn him, he was _right_. Now wasn't the time for this… whatever _this_ was. I should go to bed. I should rest up and approach this with a clearer, more rational head on my shoulders tomorrow. He'd made the right choice. The responsible choice. If we'd kept carrying on like that, it would have been a mistake and…

...and so what?

So what if it was a mistake? It was _my_ mistake to make! That I _wanted_ to make. Besides, I didn't think it actually _was_ a mistake, not really. It's not like this was just some spur of the moment attempt to hide from my pain within his physical comfort. This… this was something I'd be wanting for some time. And so now, what… I was just supposed to put it on pause and wait? Just because of something so insignificant as… _bad timing?_

To hell with that.

I'd been pretending. This whole time, I'd been pretending. And no, I didn't just mean the fake relationship to fool my parents. I'd been fooling _myself_. Tricking myself into believing this was just a crush when it was really… I don't even know, but it was so much more than just some simple crush! I'd been pretending my feelings were trivial, pretending that… that I couldn't see those same feelings in Lea when really I'd known. I'd known all this time, but I'd been too afraid to face them. To face him.

I was scared of everything. Always stressing and second guessing myself and overthinking things. But not this. I wasn't scared of this. Not anymore. In that moment, I'd never been more sure of anything in my life and I-

I had to stop him from leaving.

I pulled out my phone, almost dropped it but caught in time, then pressed the power button.

...nope, still dead.

Right. I tossed it onto the table as I ran past, rushing for the door. Maybe he hadn't made it to his car yet. If I hurried, I could hopefully still catch him. My hand closed around the doorknob, yanking it open and-

-jumping backwards with a tiny yelp to avoid getting crushed as Lea suddenly came falling through it, his back crashing flat against the floor at my feet. He hissed in pain, wincing up at me.

"Are you okay? What..." my brow furrowed as I looked down at him, then to my door, then back. "...were you just… leaning back against the door?"

He hopped up to his feet, laughing self-consciously as he dragged a hand along the back of his neck. "Yeah! Sorry! Just… needed a sec to, er… to get my head on straight." He inched back a step towards the hallway outside. "Right, so uh…" Another step back. "I'm gonna..." he jerked his thumb over his shoulder with a click of his tongue, "...gonna get going now."

As he began to turn away however, I grabbed his hand in both of mine. He froze, looking down at where my fingers wrapped around his. Then up at me, confusion in his eyes.

This whole time, I'd been pretending. But now…

"...I don't want to pretend anymore," I told him quietly, stepping closer and gazing up the few inches that separated us. Recalling something he'd once told me, I added, "I… wish we were real too."

Lea sucked in a low, shuddering breath, hesitating for only a heartbeat more. Then a soft, "Oh thank god," came tumbling from his lips as he grabbed my face with both hands to kiss me again, pouring his entire being into it. Kicking the door shut behind him and still locked in our embrace, he backed me further and further into the room until my legs hit the backrest of the couch and we both went toppling over it, my back hitting the cushions with him on top of me.

Abruptly, he pulled his lips off of mine, but only long enough for him to sit up on his knees so he could jerk off his jacket and throw it somewhere. Then he came back down, his hands finding mine, weaving our fingers together to either side of my head as his nose brushed against mine. His mouth stopped just short of my own however and I could taste the hint of his breath as his eyes crinkled and he smiled tenderly at me. Oh gosh, there was that dimple of his again. That dimple was straight up murder. My heart spasmed and I bit back a grin myself. Then he was kissing me.

It was soft as slow at first, as if to savor it. Then his tongue was lightly grazing along my lips and the kiss deepened. It came as no surprise that he tasted like cinnamon - I probably did too at the moment. However, the flavor was _way_ more enticing on his tongue than it could ever hope to be just coming from some candy. His lips were growing more urgent, more demanding. Fire. It felt like I was on fire. It felt like my insides were melting to mush.

He was gently pressing his weight down into me, his hand moving to hook under my knee and tug it up, wrapping my leg around his waist. Now free, my own hand wound itself into his hair again before trailing down his neck and further, feeling the hard planes of his back through the material of his shirt, digging my nails in.

Breaking our lips apart, Lea now traced hungry kisses along my jawline and down my neck until he found my pulse point. He swirled his tongue against it, causing my body to react on its own and arch my back up into him. His body eagerly pushed back as his teeth began to nibble at the sensitive spot where my neck met my shoulder. A hum of a sigh escaped me and he answered with a low growl deep in his throat, suddenly biting down hard.

My neck burned deliciously and I made a noise that was somewhere between a gasp and a moan. I'd never, _ever_ made a noise like that before in my life. I might have been embarrassed if I had had half a mind to. Instead, I was too lost in the pleasure as he sucked on the now tender skin before chuckling, slowly trailing his lips just a bit further up my neck and lightly nipping at a fresh spot.

Oh dear lord, he was going to do it again.

I barely scraped together enough sense to breathe, "Lea, wait."

His whole body tensed as he went very still, his breath heavy and hot against my throat. Then all of a sudden he was pulling away, sitting up and quickly shifting to the opposite end of the couch from me. "You're right," his voice was husky, his face flushed as he hunched forward, elbow propping on his knee as he brought his hand up in an attempt to hide his tiny, guilty scowl. "You're right. Fuck, I was moving too fast. Sorry, I… I didn't mean to-"

"No," I said quickly, scooting closer to him. "That's… not what I meant. I just… I'm not sure when _they_ ," I glanced towards my roomies' empty bedroom, "will be home. We wouldn't want them to find us out here, er..." I cleared my throat, my cheeks doing the impossible and blushing even harder than they already were. I paused, trying to compose myself and gather my scrambled thoughts, absently licking my lips as I did so. He went very still, half-lidded eyes now very intently focused on my mouth. My chest fluttered under the intensity of his gaze and I cleared my throat again, "What I'm trying to say is that… maybe we should…"

Ugh, I was too flustered to say it.

Flustered, but not nervous. Or anxious or scared or awkward or… This wasn't making me feel any of the things I normally would've expected myself to feel in this situation. No, this…

This felt right.

This is something I wanted. Really, _really_ wanted. I could feel it, deep down in my heart. And for once, I wanted to listen to what my heart was telling me.

And right now it was telling me to kiss him.

So I did. I slowly reached a hand up, softly tracing my fingers over his jawline before clasping at the nape of his neck and gently tugging his head down so I could press my lips to his again. He inhaled, long and slow, his warm hand cupping my cheek.

He seemed reluctant to end the kiss, his mouth following mine when I finally pulled away. But then I stood up and faced him, taking his hands in mine and drawing him to his feet as well. Smiling shyly up at him, I began pulling him towards the door to my room and as if in a trance, he followed. I led him inside, the door quietly shutting behind us.

* * *

_**Author's Note:** _ _Sooooo... pretty sure they know they like each other now, what do ya'll think? :P Oh gosh, writing and sharing this chapter all but made me burst into flames *blushing intensifies* lol! I tell ya, for someone who starts so many fics where romance is one of the major themes, it is VERY rare that I actually get to The Big Kiss (TM) scene, so this just had me squirming the whole time xD Lea, that dear boy, he tried so hard to be the responsible one, he really did, but a guy only has so much willpower! And I know, things weren't really talked out this chapter, but don't worry, a lil discussion is on the horizon xD Also, does everyone remember something Elsa said to Lea way, waaaay back in chapter 15 during their car ride up to her old condo? Something small but SUPER relevant here... xD_ _On a different note_ _, we finally know it! Elsa's fave ice cream: Frozen Heart, oooOOOooOOoo fancy! THIS one is not named after a keyblade - I really wanted to of course name it after Arendelle world's keyblade in KH3, but let's face it… Crystal Snow was kinda a bland name! Frozen Heart would have been WAY better, not to mention a SUPER obvious choice for a keyblade name so I dunno why the design team didn't go with that! Anyway, its Ice Palace menu listing might look a lil something like: "Blue mint chocolate chip with silver sprinkles, coated in an icy, crystallized sugar shell on the outside and a strawberry slice that can be found buried deep within its chilly center. Will you be the one to melt this frozen heart?" …or something equally cheesy xD Anyhoo, heads up guys, if you hadn't guessed, we're now entering the homestretch of this story! Figured that'd be okay to tell ya, since if this were a paperback that you could physically hold in your hands, you'd be able to tell when there were only a few more chapters left in that case too xD But I have some good news waiting for ya'll at the end of this story's final chapter, so hopefully that gives ya something to look forward to!_

_Thank you so much for reading, especially to those of you who have left a kudos and shared with me your thoughts and feelings on this story so far! Remember, feedback is not only welcome, but highly encouraged and super appreciated!_


	29. Chapter 29

"What the everliving _fuck_ , Lea?! Why the _hell_ are you naked in our kitchen?!"

Riku's muffled shout had me jerking awake and shooting up in bed, my hand clutching the blanket.

"Er, heh… laundry day?"

Lea's response.

Both voices had come from the other side of my closed bedroom door. I heard a ruckus out there ensue - possibly the sounds of a chase? Wincing at the sunlight pouring in through my window, I glanced towards the clock on my nightstand. Ugh, we'd only gotten to sleep a few short hours ago.

...speaking of…

I lifted my blanket slightly away from me as I looked down at myself.

Yup.

Not a stitch on me.

Not sure what else I could've _possibly_ expected.

My door suddenly burst open and I gasped, hugging my comforter to my chest once more as Lea came barreling in. Okay, at least he wasn't _completely_ naked. He had one of my bed sheets wrapped around his waist. _Thankfully_. I don't think that my heart could have survived such a visual otherwise at this precise moment.

He leapt into bed with me, sniggering as he hid behind me. Or rather, tried to anyway. My frame was far too small to be concealing such a large man. "Mornin', gorgeous!" he chirped, planting a swift peck to my cheek.

Face heating and groggy brain still trying to catch up, I began, "I- Wha-"

"Why, Lea?! Just… _why?!_ " Riku yelled from the other side of the door, which seemed to have hit a wall and bounced back to almost closing again. It was now just barely open a crack for us to clearly hear my annoyed roommate's voice through it.

"Was trynta scrounge something up for breakfast!" Lea called back. "El was hungry!"

...I was?

My stomach growled.

Oh. Apparently, yes. Yes I was.

...oh gosh, it hadn't been gurgling in my sleep, had it? How embarrassing.

Riku's voice snarled, "You couldn't have put some goddamn pants on first?!"

"It was an emergency! Hadta get some food in the woman, stat!"

There was a loud angry huff from the other side of the door. "Whatever, you just better not have sat on anything out here or I swear…"

It hadn't escaped my notice that Riku hadn't followed Lea in here. Perhaps the implications of Lea barging in first in his current state of undress had not been lost on him and so he was staying out there to preserve my modesty.

Rayne on the other hand…

My door banged open for a second time to reveal her suddenly standing in the threshold, a huge ear-to-ear grin splitting her face in two. "Oh my god, it finally happened!"

Rayne had no such compunctions.

She squealed before running further into the room, holding something up in one hand. "Ahh, I'm so excited! So, _so_ happy for you guys! Oh dear _lord_ , you have no _idea_ how frustrating it's been watching the two of you just dancing around each other this whole time but not bloody doing a damn thing about it! It was driving me up the goddamn wall!" Turns out that thing in her grasp was her phone, or so I came to realize when she shoved it in my face, "But finally! The day we've all been hoping for is here at last! The day you've become," pause for dramatic effect,"...a _woman!_ Halle-freakin-lujah! Do you have any words you'd like to commemorate this momentous event with?"

"Why the phone?" was my oh so moving speech as I scrunched up my face and put my hand to the device, pushing it away.

She beamed and shrugged. "I'm recording this."

"You're _what?!_ " I blanched.

"Yup! To immortalize this historic occasion! Plus, I need video evidence cuz otherwise there is _no_ way Anna will ever believe this. She's gonna flip her-" she suddenly gasped, free hand shooting forward to brush my hair back off my shoulder while getting in close with her phone again. "Holy Jesus H Christ, Lea, what the hell did you do to the woman's throat?!"

I jerked back from her touch, brow furrowing. "My...?" I brought my hand up to brush a finger to my neck. Huh. It _was_ rather sore…

"Dude," she fixed me with a pointed look from the other side of her phone. "It's absolutely _covered_ in hickeys."

"H-?!" I choked on the word, eyes widening and face an inferno.

"Seriously. That thing is more bruise than neck at this point." Rayne leaned in even further with her mobile, fascinated. "Would you lookit that? All the lil ones are coming together to form - dun, dun dun," her voice dropped to intone with deep reverence, "the Mother Hickey!"

I slapped a hand over the spot, trying to cover it up.

She snerked then cackled. "Oh, sweetie. Your hand would have to be the size of an extra large, double stuffed pizza to conceal _that_ monster! Damn, Red, for real… that's a masterpiece!"

Lea gave a sheepish laugh beside me, fingers ruffling his wild bedhead hair. "Guess it _is_ some o' my best work, huh?"

Squeaking, I burrowed into my blankets to hide from the rest of the world.

"Alright, no further comment, show's over now. Riku!" Lea gave a sudden shout. "Come corral your woman!"

I heard a slow creak from my door, then the sound of feet awkwardly shuffling in. "Sorry about-" There was a _thud_ and Riku hissed, " _Ow!_ ...about this, Elsa. I pr-" _Whump_. "Gah! Promise I'm not-" _Bang_. "Goddamn it! I'm not-"

"Oh for the love of…" A sigh from Rayne. "Riku! You can remove your hand from your eyes, you goob! She's hiding under the sheets."

"I think I'll keep my hand right where it is, thank you very much!" he grumbled back. He could be heard shambling about for a bit more, peppered here and there by him bumping and crashing into a few more things, before finally, "Ah-ha! _There_ you are!"

"Ack! Riku!" The sounds of what could only be described as a kerfuffle followed. "Put me _down_ , brat!"

"We'll, uh… go get breakfast going and give you two some… _privacy_ ," Riku grunted out. Pretty sure I could hear him now literally dragging his wife out of the room. How he managed that one-handed (as I could only assume the other was still being used to shield his eyes), I'll never know. Eventually, mercifully, I heard my door click shut.

Lea gave a soft snort. "So… wanna come out and show me your beautiful face?" he then coaxed gently.

Twitching slightly, I gripped harder at the fabric of the comforter - aka my sanctuary. "Hmm… mm-mm, no, I think I'm good in here, thanks."

There was a brief pause. Then, "Alright. Guess me and _my_ beautiful face are just gonna have to come in there instead." The blankets abruptly lifted, but only just enough for Lea to scooch in next to me under them before tucking them back down around us once more. His shoulders hunched, sheet overhead smooshing his hair down as he shot me a grin. "Hi."

Oh gosh, it was bad enough that he'd been naked before. Now he was naked and _close_. Not that I could really see anything below the waist - he was still wrapped in sheet down there. Still, even though I couldn't _see_ him in all his nude glory, didn't mean I wasn't one hundred and ten percent fully _aware_ of it and that thought alone was enough to send the blood rushing to my face all over again.

Ugh, calm down, cheeks. You'd think after last night, there'd be nothing left to get so red over.

"Wanna talk about it?" he tipped his head to one side.

"Hm?" I hummed absently, dragging my eyes up to meet his. While the _actual_ goods were currently out of sight, I was still finding just the sight of his bare chest rather, hrm… _distracting_.

He gave a small shrug, "Whatever it is that's bothering you."

I gnawed on my lower lip and glanced away, clutching the undersheet more tightly to my chest.

...last night had been…

_...amazing_ …

...slow and tender at times, and… heated and passionate at others, as well as, er… how shall I put it... enlightening? Sure, let's go with that. But also, it'd been…

...confusing.

I mean, not in the moment itself, it hadn't been. But now…? Well, it was just… we hadn't really _talked_ about anything beforehand. Frankly, we'd let hormones do all the talking. Hormones were a new experience for me. I'd never even had so much as an inkling of a single solitary hormone ever before and last night I'd been struck by a whole raging tsunami of the damn things. Who knew they could be so, er… _persuasive_. It'd been all too easy to get swept up in the torrent. But now that the storm had died down, now that morning was here and I could think more clearly, I…

Well, I didn't _regret_ it. No, not one bit. But… I guess I just had questions. Like where did this leave Lea and me? I hadn't forgotten the little detail that he'd never really been the relationship type before, and I had no real _solid_ reason to believe that that was about to change just for me. And what about his whole "no girls until graduation" rule? Just what had this been for him then? A temporary lapse in judgement? A moment of weakness? Yeesh, I didn't want to be one of _those_ girls who got all, "What does this mean?" after they sleep with a guy, but…

You know what? No, there was nothing wrong with being one of those girls. Those girls were valid. Those girls had a right to know and so did I, damn it! I _deserved_ to know if this had actually meant something to him or if I'd just been a… another notch on the headboard or… or if he'd just been sowing his wild oats or-

"Oh gosh, was I just an _oat_ to you?!" I suddenly blurted out, snatching the comforter down off my head with a huff.

"Uh…" Lea fought with the blanket a bit himself before his top half broke free to join me out here, blinking at me owlishly. "...no?" he tried, his guyliner-smudged eyes squinting uncertainly.

Right. Good job, mouth. Way to make me sound like a total crackpot.

Inhaling deeply through my nose and then puffing out a slow breath, I gave it another go. "...was last night just a…" The blush returned as I struggled for the right words. "...a one night stand?"

His shoulders stiffened as his head rocked back. "What?! No. _God_ no! El, I-" his hand was reaching for me, but it stopped just short of my arm. He frowned, pulling it back to instead rub over his mouth then drag along the nape of his neck with a sigh. "Shit, we're always doing things so backwards, aren't we? Kissing before we'd even so much as said our first hello to each other… Going steady before we'd even been on a single date… Now hopping into bed together before taking a minute to tell each other how we really…" he trailed off with another sigh, leaving the thought unfinished.

I remained silent, just looking down as I drew my blanketed knees up, hugging them to my chest.

Lea shifted around so he was instead facing me now, clasping his own sheet to keep it firmly wrapped around his waist. Pulling one knee up himself, he propped an elbow atop it as he bent forward to my eye-level. "Do you remember the story I told about how we met?"

My eyes blinked. "You mean the plot of _Before Sunrise_?"

Grinning softly now, he said, "If you'll recall, that movie starts on the train. But that's not where the story I told began."

A crease formed between my eyebrows. "No, it started with the lantern festival."

"That's right," he nodded. "...I was there, El. I was really there, same time as you."

My spine snapped straight as I inhaled, small and sharp. "You were?"

"Yup! Everything… seeing you there, the lanterns going up, even the bit about me faceplanting into a lamppost… all of it, and I do mean _all_ of it, was true."

I gaped slightly before shaking my head slowly. "But… you said you'd never seen the lantern show."

"I haven't. Oh sure, I was _there_ , but I was too busy watching you instead," he chuckled, tapping me on the nose.

There was a small flutter inside my ribcage. Still, I frowned. "But… but _I_ was the one who said the city we met in was Corona."

He snorted, scratching a spot behind his ear, "Yeah, and I was floored when ya did. Thought for a sec that maybe you actually _had_ noticed me at the festival. But nope, turned out to just be a lucky shot in the dark!" Lea laughed, then paused with a wistful smile. "...obviously in the real story, I didn't end up following you onto that train, but shit, you dunno how bad I wanted to. But I'd just sworn off girls to focus on college only the day before, and I didn't wanna be so weak as to go tossing that out the window less than twenty-four hours in." His lips then pursed to one side, eyes downcast. "In a way, maybe it was for the best. I don't think the time was right for either of us yet. I… wouldn't have been ready to be the person you needed me to be."

I didn't know what to say to that. Even if I did, I'm not sure if I would have been able to get any words out past the tightening in my throat. So instead, I just settled for reaching for his hand.

Flashing me a grin, he brought it up so he could press his lips lightly to my knuckles before going on, "But man, did I regret letting you get away without even so much as talking to you. Was kicking myself ever since, thinking I'd never see you again." His eyes crinkled as he leaned in closer now, "So imagine my shock 'bout a year later when I spot a very cute, very _familiar_ new girl working the ice cream counter across the food court from me. It'd seemed fate had decided to give me a second chance with the divine creature from the lantern festival. I just hadta meet her."

One corner of my mouth tugged up, "What about your dating hiatus?"

"Hey now, I was just trying to get to know you! _You_ were the one who kissed _me_ first, remember?" his lips twisted into a smirk and I rolled my eyes, feeling heat creeping up the back of my neck. His gaze turned serious however. "...women have always kinda been a weakness for me. I'd practically made a career out of skirt chasing. Whenever it came down to making a choice between the ladies and getting my shit together, I picked ladies every time. But when I finally decided, and I mean _really_ decided to buckle down, I cut that part of my life out completely. I thought it would be hard, but it actually really wasn't. Turns out they'd just been a bad habit I hadta kick. Having them around had been a distraction.

"But when it came to you…" his eyes softened as he reached for a lock of my hair to fiddle with. "The more I got to know you, it… The distraction was… _not_ having you around. I couldn't concentrate on anything else… not school, not work... I was thinking about you all the time. Couldn't get you outta my head. Not for a damn second."

"Lea…" my hand came up of its own accord to brush along his cheek.

He covered it with his own, turning his head slightly to kiss my palm. "...you know with crushes, or love at first sight, or whatever the hell you wanna call it… they say you're not really falling for the person, but rather just the _idea_ of them. That you're just building 'em up in your head, putting 'em on a pedestal… but that when you actually finally do get to know the person, it'll be a letdown. That they won't turn out to be who you wanted them to be." Pressing our foreheads together now, he nuzzled the tip of his nose to mine, "But you turned out to be _so_ much better than I ever coulda imagined."

I scoffed, face burning as I muttered, "Sounds like someone's been watching too many of those cornball movies."

"I mean it, so shush, you," he chided, biting back a grin. Then he was shifting a little closer to me. "What I'm trying to tell ya is that you're stuck with me. I'm not going anywhere. I'm yours, if you'll have me. I am all in."

My breath hitched as I stared into those stunning green eyes of his. I hesitated for a second, my thumb idly stroking along where he still had my hand clasped to his cheek. Then I bent forward, giving him a gentle kiss. "...I'm all in too."

"Yeah?" he murmured, grin twitching wider. "So how 'bout it then? Can I be your boyfriend for real this time?"

I hummed a soft laugh, nodding. "I'd like that very much."

"Good." Lea curled a finger under my chin, pressing his lips soundly to mine. Then he used his hold on my chin to carefully turn my head to one side, eyes half-lidded as he got a closer look at, er, heh… at the Mother Hickey. "Hmm, I really _did_ do a number on this side of your neck, huh? Gotta a bit carried away." He planted a quick peck to the tender skin there, making it tingle pleasantly. Then he was sweeping my hair forward over that shoulder and turning my head the other way, tsking, "While this side," a kiss to said side, "is looking rather neglected. You're rather lopsided here and we can't have that, now can we?"

"No?" I breathed, shivering as I felt his lips graze over my skin, my hand drifting down to trail along his chest.

"Mm-mm. Why don't we see what we can do here to correct this oversight," he said, voice low as he began nibbling at my throat. I could feel him hooking a finger into where I had the blanket hugged to my torso, giving it a gentle tug and-

My door abruptly flew open for the third time. "Elsa! I need to talk to-" Anna - that's right, _Anna_ \- gasped from where she stood in the doorway now, slapping a hand over her eyes. Lea and I jerked apart, me clutching the comforter more fiercely to my body than ever. My sister parted her fingers for a peek, then snapped them back closed with a giggle. "Oo la la! You two really go the extra mile to sell this girlfriend-boyfriend act! You _do_ remember calling the whole thing off yesterday though, right?"

Lea hung his head and sighed heavily while I scooted off the bed with an annoyed little growl. Keeping the blanket firmly wrapped around me like a misshapen, makeshift dress, I narrowed my eyes and marched over to her. "What are you doing here, Anna? Why didn't you just call?"

"Your phone's been-"

I snatched her hand down from where it was still covering her eyes, since I refused to hold a conversation with her while she looked so silly. She blinked a couple times before a tiny laugh bubbled out of her, "Oh hi!" I merely drooped my eyelids at her and she cleared her throat, expression hardening. "Your phone's been going straight to voicemail and this couldn't wait!"

That's right. My phone was still dead and I never got around to charging it last night. I'd been a little otherwise, ahem… _preoccupied_.

I pinched the bridge of my nose with an irritated huff. I didn't want to deal with this right now. Taking hold of Anna's shoulder, I spun her around and pushed her back towards my door, "Fine, then just... try calling me again later."

"What?! No, wait!" Her hands flew out to grab either side of the doorframe and she dug in her heels, bringing us both to a lurching stop. "Sis, I really, _really_ need to talk to you!"

"Well I don't want to talk to you!" I snapped back, pressing my shoulder into her back and putting my full weight into trying to get her moving again. No dice. She wouldn't budge.

"Elsa, please!" she whirled around to face me once more, unleashing the full might of her devastating pout on me.

Fudge. I'd never been able to say no to those big, sad, puppy-dog eyes of hers.

I puffed out a small breath with a scowl. Then I grumbled, "Fine. Just give me a minute to get-"

Dressed.

That's the word I'd been about to say.

However, Anna's excited squeal cut me off and she grabbed my elbow, yanking me along with her as she ran out into the living room. I tried to resist, making a desperate grab for my doorknob but only succeeded in slamming the door shut behind me before it slipped free of my grip. Before I knew it, Hurricane Anna had plonked me down on one of the living room sofas with her flumping down beside me.

"Ugh, not you too," came Riku's groan from the kitchen.

Glancing over, I saw him standing next to a pan sizzling on a stove burner, one of his hands holding a large spatula while the other blurred up to clasp over his eyes. Rayne sniggered at him as she pulled something out of the fridge.

"Hey, I _tried_ to change," I shot back before turning my accusatory gaze on my sister. She merely beamed and shrugged in response. Rolling my eyes, I primly adjusted my blanket-dress with as much dignity as I could muster to ensure I remained one hundred percent PG. My other hand went to my hair, which was still gathered forward over one shoulder, thankfully covering the Mother Hickey.

No need for Anna to spot _that_ , thank you very much.

"Come on, hon, let's get you somewhere where you're free to see," Rayne snorted, relieving him of the spatula and taking his hand in hers so she could start guiding him towards their bedroom.

I shot Anna a dull stare now, waiting with a frown.

Her cue to begin.

"Alright, first of all, we're going to have to come back to _that_ later," she waved a hand towards my bedroom door. "Because okay, _wow!_ "

"I know, right?" Rayne chimed in with a laugh, not having quite reached her room yet. I fixed her with an unamused look and she winced. "Sorry," she whispered, returning all her focus on getting her temporarily blinded husband out of there.

Once they'd disappeared through their door, Anna sat up a little straighter, squared her shoulders, and tugged at her skirt, straightening out its wrinkles. Then she took a deep breath, "Right. Okay, where to begin… well, for starters, I did not - you hear me? _Not_ ," she reiterated, striking up a finger for emphasis, "suggest the whole you and Lea thing just to keep Mom and Dad from getting mad about the whole Hans and me thing."

I gave her a flat look, quirking a dubious eyebrow.

"I didn't! I _swear_ I didn't! My _actual_ reasons were threefold. Count 'em, three," she held up the matching number of fingers, wiggling them slightly. Then she ticked off the first one, "A, as I brought up yesterday, I figured having him backing you up would give you the courage to face Mom and Dad. B, I thought that big, scary, redheaded ox of a man would make Mom and Dad think twice before still trying to tell you what to do. Which, in hindsight, kinda backfired… but hey, was worth a shot at least, right?" she gave a nervous chuckle.

I did not laugh with her.

She cleared her throat and hastily pressed on, "And C, it was so _obvious_ that you and Lea had the total friggin' mega hots for each other, so I thought I might play cupid and help that along a lil." Her eyes darted to my bedroom door again before she leaned in closer, waggling her eyebrows, "You're _welcome_ , by the way."

Now I full on glowered at her.

Sense the tone, brat.

She gulped, pulling back again, eyes darting about as she fidgeted with her fingers. Then she huffed, "And _fine_ , okay sure, did I realize you two playing lovebirds in front of Mom and Dad might keep some of the heat off of me and Hans? Yes, but that was more of a… an afterthought! Ya know, like… a nice lil _perk_ on the side. Was it a perk I should have taken advantage of? No. Should I have figured out a different weekend to drop the Hans-bomb? Maybe. But-"

"Sorry, sorry!" Rayne suddenly popped back into the room, sneaking past us towards the kitchen. "Just don't want the bacon to burn. Pretend I'm not here."

Returning my attention to Anna, I saw her frowning, deep in thought and possibly trying to think up a different tactic here. Then she was opening her mouth again, "Look, Sis... he and I didn't _mean_ for this to happen-"

I scoffed, "You said that already yesterday."

"No, let me finish! We didn't mean for it to happen, but it did and nothing can change that now. And you know what? I wouldn't _want_ to change that. I am _not_ sorry." I looked at her sharply and she swiftly amended, "I _am_ sorry if it hurt you. So, _so_ sorry, you have no idea! But I'm not sorry that it _happened_. You have to understand, he and I… Elsa, it's nothing like I've ever known before! It… it's like fireworks! It's amazing and magical and-"

"He who?" Rayne was suddenly next to us in the living room, making me jerk in surprise.

Jeez, I hadn't even heard her leave the kitchen!

Hand covering my rapid, startled heartbeat, I told her, "Hans. My ex."

"Oh…" the corners of her mouth turned down. Then a blink and a louder, " _Oh!_ " Followed by her eyes narrowing on my sister with a disapproving, "Anna!"

"Fireworks, Ray-Ray! Fireworks!" she snapped back in her defense.

Shaking her head, Rayne directed my attention to what she was holding in her hands - a small bowl of mixed, sliced fruit. "To tide you over until the rest of the food is ready," she explained, depositing it onto the coffee table before making her way back over to the stove.

I stared blankly at the little snack, as if not quite sure what to do with it. Then my stomach gave another growl to remind me.

Oh yeah. That.

"The _point_ ," Anna steadfastly insisted, "is that we both know you didn't love him. But I-"

A derisive snort escaped me as I started poking through the fruit. "That is so not the point and you know it."

Her face pinched in annoyance and she spat out, "But _I_ do!"

Snagging a grape, my brow furrowed. "...do what?"

" _Love_ him!"

My eyes widened briefly, then I shot her a dull stare. "...you can't love a man you've just been dating a few weeks."

"And why not?" she glared at me as I popped the grape into my mouth. "You and Lea have been only _pretending_ to date for a few weeks and you're in love with him!"

Cue choking on said grape.

Blasted things are hazardous to your health!

Face roasting as I banged a fist to my chest to dislodge the damn thing and let blessed oxygen back in again, I wheezed, "I'm not- _We're_ not- I mean, it's just-"

"Oh please!" she rolled her eyes. "It's you, Elsa. _You_. You're the very definition of ice queen. You don't just go around having crazy wild monkey sex-"

"Oh my god, _Anna!_ " I buried my face in my hands.

"Don't oh-my-god-Anna me! It's true! You don't! You _never_ do this! So the only _obvious_ conclusion is that you-"

I clamped a hand over her mouth, fixing her with a tiny scowl. Then I said calmly and evenly, "One, it is not the _only_ conclusion. And two, this isn't about Lea and me. This is about you and Hans." I slowly started to lower my hand but when I saw her sucking in breath to go off once more, I quickly gagged her again. Then I shot her a warning look, silently demanding that she zip it. Her eyelids drooped and I took that as reluctant consent. Taking my hand back now, I looked to the bowl of fruit once more. Hm… maybe a banana slice? Yeah, that seemed less likely to murder me. Bending forward to reach for it, I went on, "Now I know you might _think_ you two are in love, but-"

She abruptly gasped, "Holy friggin' cow, what's _that?!_ "

Suppressing a groan at being interrupted, I grumbled, "What's what?"

" _That!_ On your neck!" With a start, I realized some of my hair had slipped back behind me, no longer concealing the Mother Hickey. The monstrosity had broken loose to wreak its unholy havoc. Anna gaped in pure awe, "Damn, Sis, what was that boy trying to do to you? Draw blood, the friggin' vampire?"

"She liked it!" came Lea's voice suddenly as he exited my bedroom, shutting the door behind him with a smug grin.

Cheeks bursting into flames, I grabbed a raspberry to chuck at him for oversharing.

He caught it easily and sniggered. "Thanks, babe!" he chirped, tossing it up into the air before catching it in his mouth.

Then I looked at him. _Really_ looked at him and came to a realization.

That jerk now had clothes on.

"Hey, no fair! How come _he_ got to get dressed and I didn't?!" I snapped, hand balling more tightly into my blanket-dress in my continued effort to keep the thing together and in place.

Anna whined in frustration, "Sis, focus! We're talking about something important here!"

Says the girl who just got sidetracked by the Mother Hickey.

"Okay, maybe Hans and I haven't been dating for long," she began as out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Lea poking about the living room in various places, searching for something. "But just like you, I grew up with him. We've known each other all our lives. I _know_ him, Elsa. Really, really know him." At last he seemed to spot it - his leather jacket, which he snatched up now from wherever he'd tossed it last night. He came over to me and draped it around my shoulders, ducking down to brush a peck to my temple as he did so. "Know him and… and _care_ about him. I actually feel like this has been a long time coming, Sis. That he and I were just _meant_ to be. It's the kind of stuff that cheesy romcom flicks are made of, what everyone's singing about in all those sappy songs. Ya know… true love."

"Come on, Anna," I sighed as I tugged Lea's jacket closer, grateful for the added bit of coverage. Thumb idly running up and down the metal teeth of the zipper, I muttered, "Thought you outgrew fairytales a long time ago."

"What's with the shit-eating grin?" I heard Rayne asking Lea as he moved to join her in the kitchen.

He shrugged, plopping down into one of the dining chairs, "You'd have one too if El had just agreed to be _your_ girlfriend."

"Oof, point taken."

"Fairytale or no, I _love_ him," Anna said, drawing my focus back to her. "And he loves me! And I'm sorry that we went about it in the _way_ wrong way and hurt you in the process. I really, truly am! But what's done is done. I know I don't deserve your forgiveness so soon, but I'm asking… _hoping_ , really, that you'll still give it… because I need you right now, Elsa."

She reached out for my hand, squeezing it as her face fell as she momentarily paused. Then, "I need my big sis. Hans' parents… they're _furious_ about all this. They didn't want their son with the second Fryse daughter, they wanted you. They're blowing a friggin' gasket, which is making Mom and Dad blow their own stupid gaskets too. Which is whatever, fine, I can take it… but not if you're mad at me too." She sniffled, eyes downcast and bottom lip quivering. "...I could really use you in my corner right now, Sis. Please."

I frowned at her, eyebrows knitting together and not saying anything right away. Then, "...you two… really love each other?"

"Oh my god, so much," she gave a weak wobble of a laugh, fingers swiping at the corner of her eye. "I love him with all of my heart and I know he feels the same way about me too."

I inhaled and exhaled softly. Then I covered her hand with mine. "Fine. I forgive you. And I'm here for you, whatever you need."

"Really?!" Anna cried out. I nodded and she broke out into a huge grin, eyes welling up even further to the point where tears escaped. Then she was tackling me in a hug that knocked the wind out of me. "Oh thank you, thank you! You're the bestest, most amazing, most beautiful big sis ever!"

Who was I to stand in the way of love?

_True_ love, no less. Apparently.

As she pulled away, she was now a blubbering mess and I had to stifle a snort. She'd always been such an endearingly ugly cryer. Jamming the heel of her palm to her nose in an attempt to dam the flow of snot, she asked, "Can I take a minute or two to clean myself up in your bathroom?"

I gestured a hand towards the restroom door and she got up, starting to make her way over to it. "Anna," I said abruptly and she stopped in her tracks, glancing back over her shoulder at me. I hesitated briefly, gnawing on my lower lip and almost losing my nerve. But then finally I began, "Would you… that is, later, would you maybe like to…" my lips clamped shut. Oh gosh, I was getting so awkward over such a silly little question. Taking a steadying breath, I then braved a tiny smile for her, "...do you want to make some scotcheroos?"

...would she even remember?

She blinked. "You mean… as in like when we were…?" Then it seemed to click and her face did this funny thing were it both lit up and brimmed over with even more tears. "Yes! Yes, I'd like that very much! I… Just gimme a sec, I'll be right back!" Then she hastily disappeared into the bathroom, clicking the door shut behind her.

I jolted in surprise as Lea suddenly one-hand vaulted himself over the back of the couch, quick to take the seat next to me that Anna had just vacated. He gave me a toothy grin as he slung an arm around my shoulders, tugging me closer to him.

...okay, this was going to take some getting used to.

A couple weeks of fake dating had in _no_ way prepared me for the real thing.

However, as I felt him pressing his lips to the top of my head and nuzzling his nose into my hair as he did so, I relaxed a bit into his side.

I might... _enjoy_ getting used to this.

Now if only everything else could be so simple. In particular, my family-

"Oh gosh, my family!" I suddenly stiffened.

"Hm?" his hand rubbed up and down my arm outside the jacket. "What about them?"

I groaned, "I just finished telling them yesterday that you and I _weren't_ dating. Now we have to tell them that we _are_."

Lea squinted up at the ceiling, pursing his lips to the left. "...do we though?"

"Yes! I mean, maybe not right now, but _eventually_."

His free hand came up to scratch the tip of his nose, then he smiled down at me. "Hey, lookit the bright side though. Now we don't have to explain any of this craziness to the mall or tell 'em we broke up or anything like that."

I fixed him with a deadpan look. "Not helping."

"Doesn't it though?"

I narrowed my eyes up at him. Then I relented with a small huff, "...okay, maybe a little."

"Can I come out yet?" came Riku's rather pathetic call from his bedroom.

"Not yet, she's still naked!" Rayne shouted back as she used her spatula to shift the eggs frying in the pan. In response, Riku made an annoyed noise that was half growl, half moan.

Reaching for a blueberry now, I asked her over my shoulder, "Hey, were you two out all night?"

"Mm-hm!" she hummed back chipperly.

"They were just walking through the front door when they happened upon me in the kitchen in nothing but the bed sheet," Lea supplied, biting into a strawberry.

Glancing her way, I cocked my head. "Where were you guys?"

"Riku surprised me with a romantic weekend getaway!" Rayne beamed, opening the fridge back up. "Speaking of, I noticed as I was dropping my bag off in the bedroom this morning that our room seemed to be a bit, er… tossed about." She wrinkled her nose, "I seriously doubt it, but you two didn't… you know... in _there_ , right?"

My cheeks flared up. "Oh god, no! That was, um…" I cleared my throat, my fingers fiddling with the zipper clasp on the leather jacket, "...Lea was just looking for, uh… for _protection_."

Rayne glanced at him, eyelids drooping. "And you weren't packing any of that already, stud?"

His fingers ruffled his hair with a chuckle, "Stopped carrying anything like that on me a year ago when I called it quits with the ladies. Didn't want any excuses to give into temptation."

"Ah," she shook her head, stepping back over to the frying pan. Then her shoulders tensed and her head snapped up as a thought suddenly seemed to strike her. "Heh… you, er… didn't happen to find the, uh…"

"Pumpkin spice flavored condoms?" I said dryly and she twitched. "Yes, we did. And Rayne? You have a problem."

I felt Lea's whole body rumble with a laugh, "Yeah seriously, Raindrop, what the actual fuck?"

Turning several shades of deeper and deeper red, her eyes flicked nervously about. "S-someone gave them to me as a gag gift, I swear!" Yeah, wasn't buying it. Didn't help that Lea had found the box already opened. "You, uh… you two didn't actually… _use_ those, right?"

"Heh… needs must when the Devil drives!" Lea snerked as I facepalmed.

Rayne silently squirmed where she stood for an uncomfortable moment as she poked the spatula at the eggs some more. Then, "...let's never speak of this again."

"Agreed," I gave a single, firm nod. Then I was standing up, slipping out of Lea's jacket and leaving it behind on the couch as I started heading towards my bedroom. "And on that awkward note, I think I'll go put clothes on."

"Lemme help ya!" Lea grinned, hopping up to his feet behind me. However, he didn't get very far.

"Ah-ah!" Rayne was suddenly beside him, snagging him by the ear. He gave a pained hiss through grit teeth as she yanked on it, forcing him to hunch down to her height so she could glare at him. "Getting clothes _on_ that girl is the absolute furthest thing from your mind, bucko."

He clasped a hand to his chest in mock offense. "You _insult_ me, madame! I promise I had only the purest, most honorable of intentions!" She stared at him blankly before pinching his earlobe harder, forcing a tiny yelp out of him. "Okay fine, my intentions may of been hovering, _teetering_ towards the slightly dishonorable."

She sighed, "Need I remind you that that room is a future baby nursery?"

"And oh if those walls could talk, the stories they would tell your future bouncing bundle of joy."

Rayne scoffed, dragging him by the ear back towards the kitchen with him grunting the whole way. Shoving him down into one of the dining chairs, she snapped, "Now sit your ass down here and if you even _think_ about taking so much as one step closer to her bedroom door, I'm gonna neuter you with this thing," she poked him in the nose with her spatula. "Capisce, loverboy?"

He held his hands up in surrender, "Capisce!"

I'd almost made it to my room when my stomach gurgled again. I swiftly made a u-turn and went back for the bowl of fruit, picking it up and carrying it back with me. For the road! As I ate a kiwi slice, Riku called out again, " _Now_ can I come out?"

"Almost, Hon! She's heading for her door now," Rayne yelled back as she started taking plates out of the overhead cupboard, still maintaining a wary eye on Lea the whole time.

" _Finally!_ "

However, I was only halfway across the living room when abruptly there was loud, frantic banging on the front door, nearly making me drop the whole bowl.

Ugh, _now_ what?

"Elsa! Are you in there?" called a voice from the other side. A voice that made me stop dead in my tracks and whip around, wide eyed and cheeks bulging with fruit. More thunderous knocking. "Please answer the door, I have to see you!"

That… sounded like…

"...Hans?" I squeaked after choking my food down.

What on earth was _he_ doing here?!

Lea's whole body went rigid as he quickly looked from me to the source of the hammering. Both eyebrows shot up Rayne's forehead. Then she was turning off the stove burner and wiping her hands on her blue plaid shorts as she made her way over to the door. She unlocked it and opened it a crack, politely but cautiously asking, "Hi, can I help y-"

Hans was suddenly shoving his way inside, pushing past her and shouting, "Elsa, where are you? We have to-" His eyes landed on me and he froze. Then determination seared across his eyes and he was marching towards me, "Elsa, I need to talk to you!"

I'd been hearing that an awful _lot_ this morning.

I blinked, taking a step back and shaking my head, "Hans, what are you-"

That's when he finished closing the distance between us, grabbed me by the shoulders and brought his lips crashing down onto me. This time, I _did_ drop the bowl, sending mixed fruit tumbling everywhere across the carpet. Rayne and Lea gawked at us.

I- Wha- Th- Huh-

Just what...

...the actual _hell_...

...was _up_ with this friggin' morning?!

I mean, come on! More had happened to me in the past thirty minutes than usually happens to me on any normal given week!

And all while I was still wearing nothing but a stupid _bedsheet_ , for crying out loud!

It took a split second for the shock to wear off, then I was scrabbling to wedge my arms between us, shoving him away and furiously scrubbing my mouth with the back of my hand.

"Oh hell fucking no!" Lea was on his feet in a heartbeat, green eyes flashing dangerously and face twisted into a snarl.

However Rayne stopped him with a hand on his chest. "Cool your jets, Red, and shush!"

"But-" he spluttered, apparently too outraged for words. Instead he settled for gesturing both hands angrily towards Hans with a growling huff. Rayne just struck up a warning finger at him.

Fingers abusing the fabric of my comforter as I clutched it to me desperately now, I frowned, "Hans, what is this? Why are you here? How did you even know where I live?"

His brow furrowed and he stepped closer as I hastily took another step back. "I asked your parents and they had Gerda give me the address. But that's not what's important right now. What's important is I want you back!"

Um… _excuse_ me?!

Riku's voice once more came calling from beyond his bedroom door, "What's going on out there? Who's here?"

"Shush!" Rayne snapped back, eyes wide and unblinking so as not to miss a single second of the little soap opera now unfolding in her living room. "Things. Just. Got. _Interesting!_ "

"But-" Riku tried again.

"I said _shush_ , damnit!"

I just stared at Hans, jaw hanging open in disbelief. "...I'm sorry, you what?"

I must've misheard. Yeah, that had to be. It'd be the only thing that'd make any sense and-

"I want you back."

Nope. Heard him right the first time.

"Elsa, sweetheart, we were good together, right? I mean, we weren't perfect, but what couple is? We had a nice thing going though, didn't we? We belong together," he was saying now, his words soft and soothing as he started to reach for me once more.

I swatted his hands away and walked past him, _away_ from him. Unfortunately he moved to follow, pursuing me around the room. "Hans, did you forget I _left_ you at the _altar?_ "

"And I'm willing to look past that!" He grabbed my elbow, making me stop and face him once more. "If I can put that behind us, then you should be able to too. Think about it, sweetheart. Things could go back to the way they were with us. We were happy, weren't we? We made sense!"

"But I don't want to marry you!" I snapped, jerking my arm free of his grasp.

How was he not getting this? Just… how?

He brought up hands in a placating gesture, "And that's fine, we don't have to get married! Not right away, anyway! It was too soon and you weren't ready, I understand that now. Getting married is not the important part. What matters is that we're together. I still care about you and after yesterday, I _know_ that you still care about me too."

"...after yesterday?" Huh? I glared down at my crossed arms, thoroughly confused now. "...what about yesterday gave you _that_ idea?"

"That whole little speech you gave your parents," Hans stated, as if it were obvious. "I could tell how sad and full of regret you were. Regret over breaking things off with me." Uh… what now? "I could tell you wanted me back, that you went through this whole ruse to pretend like you were okay about the way things ended between us, but you really weren't." I wasn't? That was certainly news to me. "I know you're worried you could never earn my trust back, but it's okay, sweetheart. I forgive you." ...gee, thanks? "I want you back. I _need_ you back." He was reaching for me again, this time for my hand, "Please, if we can just-"

I wrenched my hand back, "Why are you saying all of this? You've _never_ talked like this before. Why are you-" I inhaled sharply, suddenly hit with a thought. "...this isn't you… this is your parents talking _through_ you, isn't it? What'd they do? Threaten to cut you off? Oh Hans, you can't just let them-"

"This isn't about them or anything they may or may not have threatened me with!" Translation: yes. Yes it was. "This is about _us_! This is-" His words abruptly stopped as he blinked, eyeing me up and down. "...are you wearing nothing but a blanket right now?"

Was Mr Perceptive just _now_ realizing this?

Also, kill me. Kill me now.

"And what did you _do_ to your neck?" he squinted, brushing my hair back off my shoulder.

And the cursed Mother Hickey strikes again!

Swear to god, I was going to friggin' kill Lea for giving me the dumb thing!

Hans gave himself a shake, face hardening. "Doesn't matter! What matters is," he snatched up both my hands now, clasping them together between his, "I _love_ you, Elsa!"

...what was this day even?! I mean, seriously! I had absolutely _zero_ clue what was even happening anymore!

However, his words sent a shock of a reminder through my system and my eyes darted over to the bathroom door, which Hans currently had his back to. Still closed. Still with Anna in there. What with the whirlwind the past five minutes had been, I'd all but forgotten she was still here. Oh gosh, could she hear all this?

Licking my dry lips, my gaze returned to Hans and I weakly shook my head. "You… you don't mean that. What about you and Anna? I thought you two were-"

"A mistake," he said firmly, his grasp around my hands tightening. "That's what we were. A mistake. You have to understand, sweetheart, I was… _was_ hurt. And weak. I did something I'm not proud of. But it meant nothing to me, understand? Absolutely nothing! It's you, Elsa. It's _always_ been you. You're the only woman for me."

"But Hans, she loves you!" I argued, wrestling my hands free of his. I could see the bathroom door behind him slowly beginning to creak open now.

He gave a derisive snort. "No she doesn't! She's just naive and _thinks_ she does. Trust me, Anna will be fine. She'll get over it. Anyway, forget about her. The only thing I want to talk about right now is you and me."

My sister stood in the doorway, expression unreadable as she just stared silently at Hans' back. Oh Anna. Poor dear, sweet Anna. She wasn't like me. She didn't know how to guard her heart and not let people in. She wore her emotions on her sleeve. This was going to break her. What would she even say? What would she even do? How-

"YOU _BASTARD!_ " she suddenly roared, charging towards him.

He whirled around with a startled, "Anna? Wha-"

She bodyslammed into him hard, sending them both crashing to the ground where she then proceeded to start royally whaling on him and calling him every nasty word under the sun while I and the rest of the room's onlookers just watched blankly.

...huh.

Apparently, _that's_ what she'd say and do.

Welp. Guess that answered that.

* * *

_**Author's Note:** _ _Oh gosh, this really WAS a lot to happen to Elsa in the space of… yeah, 30 minutes sounds about right xD All with only that infernal bed sheet to keep her modesty intact! I just have too much fun torturing my precious awkward penguin, it's all done out of love, I swear xD Anyhoo *throws confetti and blares trumpets* it's official, Lea and Elsa are a couple for REAL this time, huzzah! Did anyone guess that Lea had actually been at the lantern festival? I dropped hints throughout the story, but dunno, maybe they were too subtle… or too obvious and just no one said anything to me xD Anyhoo, not much left to go now, just a lil bit of wrap up!_

_Thank you so much for reading, especially to those of you who have left a kudos and shared with me your thoughts and feelings on this story so far! Remember, feedback is not only welcome, but highly encouraged and super appreciated!_


	30. Chapter 30

" _Chorus?!_ That's bullshit! There must be some mistake, lemme see that thing," Lea snatched the paper off from where it'd been taped to one of the auditorium doors, causing it to rip a little as he did so.

Sighing, I stretched a hand out to try and retrieve the cast list from him, "Don't be silly, it's fine. It makes sense."

He yanked the sheet out of my reach, squinting at it with a perturbed frown before scoffing. "Makes sense my sweet ass. Where's Marluxia? Me and that cotton-candy-haired punk are gonna have words."

"You'll do no such thing," I finally managed to get my hands on the paper, prying it free of his fingers. Seeing it was now horribly wrinkled to boot, I grimaced and taped it back to the door, doing my best to smooth it back out. Then I slipped my hand into Lea's and started half leading, half dragging him back towards where he'd parked his car. "And it _does_ make sense. They don't know me. They've never worked with me before. On top of that, I did choke a bit at the start of my audition. They can't trust a starring role to someone that's inexperienced and that they're unfamiliar with, not until I've shown them how I do in a background part as well as shown them that I'm capable and that they can rely on me."

"But you were the best one at the whole damn tryouts!" he huffed back. "What are those numskulls even thinking? I tell ya, if _I_ were the director, it woulda been no contest. You'd be the leading lady like that," his fingers snapped.

"You're sweet and not at _all_ biased," I rolled my eyes with a soft snort. "...honestly, I'm actually a bit relieved to be starting in chorus. I'd rather take it slow, ease myself back into theater and not take on too much responsibility right out the gate. It'll give me a chance to feel it out and see if this is something I really want to pursue. And if it is, I just have to put in the time, do the grunt work and by the next time they're putting on another production, maybe then they'll have enough confidence in me to give me a lead part."

Lea harrumphed. "They better. Otherwise I'm gonna kick Marluxia's stupid butt."

I hid a small grin behind my fingers, "He might not even be the one directing next time."

"Don't care. His ass will still be the one I kick outta pure spite."

A snerk escaped me, followed swiftly by a tiny, bubbling laugh. Lea glanced towards me, the corners of his eyes crinkling. As we came to a stop on the passenger side of his car, he tugged on my hand, pulling me up against him. He slipped one arm around my waist while his other came up to tuck some of my hair behind my ear as he ducked his head down, kissing me thoroughly.

Breath? Gone.

Knees? Jelly.

Brain? Mush.

As he pulled away and I struggled to remember how to take in oxygen again, I asked, "What was that for?"

"Just cuz I can," he winked, planting a light peck to my forehead. "You know this whole dating thing we're doing? Huge fan. Ten out of ten. Would recommend."

Face warming, I gave a derisive snort. "Sap."

"Yes, but I'm _your_ sap," he nuzzled his nose to mine before releasing me to unlock my door and hold it open for me.

"Sap _squared_ ," I promoted him with a chuckle as I took my seat, reaching for the buckle. " _Clich_ _é_ sap squared."

"Too true. And you wouldn't have me any other way," he beamed before shutting the car door. My eyes followed him as he made his way around to the other side of the vehicle, one corner of my lips twitching up.

No. I suppose I wouldn't.

"Alright, next stop," Lea said as he plopped down into his own seat, retrieving his shades from where he kept them tucked in the sun visor and slipping them onto his nose. Thankfully, it was only his aviators. But I seriously doubted I'd seen the last of those ludicrous heart-glasses. "Lay that address on me, chica."

I fished the little piece of paper it was scrawled on out of my pocket and he tapped it into his phone as I read it off to him. Then the device began reciting directions in a bored monotone, his engine roared to life as he started the car and we sped off. We hadn't even been driving for a full minute before I heard a… _peculiar_ noise coming from the back seat. I blinked, then glanced back over my shoulder. Had I imagined it? ...no, wait! There it was again! And it seemed to be coming from the floor behind my seat, where piled in a rumpled heap was…

"Um…" I quirked an eyebrow at Lea. "...your jacket seems to be barking…"

"Hm?" He was keeping his eyes on the road, but I didn't miss the hint of a smirk tugging at one side of his mouth. "Oh! Yeah, that. It does that from time to time. Needta train it to be better behaved."

My eyelids drooped. "...maybe you should feed it or take it for a walk."

"Nah, that'd only encourage it and then I'd never be able to get the damn thing to quit yapping," he snerked as he stopped at a red light. Then he was reaching behind me to shove his leather jacket aside, revealing a big box, its lid decorated with a frilly bow on top. He hoisted it up with a small grunt and deposited it into my lap. "Here. Was originally supposta be a Congratz-On-Landing-The-Lead present, but now it's more of a Congratz-On-Being-Glorified-Scenery present," Lea chuckled, scratching his cheek.

I lightly swatted at his shoulder. "There are no small parts, only small actors," I quoted with a shake of my head before directing my gaze back to the gift. I could feel it twitching and shifting slightly in my lap as it gave another couple of muffled barks.

Gee. What could it be? I really do wonder.

(Note the sarcasm.)

I was just glad to see several air holes poked into the lid. Come to think of it, Lea had been keeping his windows rolled down too. Sighing and smiling despite myself, I lifted the lid up. Sure enough, a puppy poked its head out to greet me, one that was a super white ball of pure fluff. The same one that's stolen my heart at the pet store when Lea and I had stopped by a while back. The one I'd dubbed Marshmallow. "Lea, no. I told you already that my complex doesn't allow pets." My chiding words were at odds however with my delighted chuckle as I picked the little guy up to hug close. "You shouldn't have gotten me a dog."

"I didn't," he said brightly as the light turned green and he stepped on the gas once more. "I got _myself_ a dog."

I stared at him blankly as I felt the pup flicking its tongue along my chin. "...so wait. In essence, you got _yourself_ a gift to celebrate me being glorified scenery in the play?"

"No, I got myself a gift to celebrate you getting the _lead_ in the play. Not my fault you failed to live up to your half the bargain," he tsked before laughing as I gave his shoulder another smack, this one with more force behind it. Then as we shifted lanes, he flashed a smug grin, "'Sides, keeping the furball at my place gives ya an excuse to come visit me more often."

Petting the puppy's soft fur, I snorted, "Manipulative."

"Hey, what you call manipulative, I call _incentive_."

"You're right," I hummed as my fingers scritched behind Marshmallow's ear, a sly curve to my lips now. "You're _definitely_ not enough of an incentive on your own for me to make the trip."

"Rude! You're lucky I think you're so cute," he reached over to pinch my cheek. I ignored him, holding the dog up in front of my face so we were nose-to-snoot. Marshmallow wagged his tail, licking the tip of my nose and I heard Lea grumble, "Oh sure. You he gives puppy kisses while all he ever gave me was tooth hugs."

"Tooth hugs?" I echoed, brow furrowing slightly.

"Lil furball's been tearing the shit outta my ankles nonstop," his face pinched sourly and I couldn't help a small laugh.

Once I'd sobered, I said, "I thought you said Saïx would murder you if you ever got a dog. How are you not dead?"

He flicked on his turn signal. "Oh trust me, it's not for lack of trying on his part, but bastard's gotta catch me first. The trick is to never stop moving when I'm home. Stay in one place too long and I'll get pulverized. Also got six different deadbolts locking my bedroom door now to keep him out, though I'm just waiting for him to get pissed enough to Kool-Aid Man his way through our shared wall."

"Hope I'm there to see _that_ ," I grinned, shifting to cradling the puppy in my arms in order to maximize belly rubbing efficiency. "Surprised the little guy managed to stay quiet for so long."

"Me too. Squirt was yipping up a storm the whole drive over when I was coming to pick you up. Was worried he was gonna ruin the surprise. But musta just wore himself out eventually and took a nap or something."

"Mm," I just hummed distractedly. "Also kind of shocked you were able to snag him. We saw him at the pet store, what… two weeks ago? Would have thought someone would've adopted him already in that time."

"Heh… well, I didn't exactly pick him up today..."

"Yesterday?" I glanced towards him and he gave a weak chuckle, shaking his head. "Then when?"

Lea scratched a finger behind his ear. "Er… same day we went to the roller rink?"

I blinked a couple times, then deadpanned, "...as in the same day we went to the pet store?"

"That'd be the one!" he nodded as he pulled up to a stop sign, his hand coming up to pluck at the short hairs at the nape of his neck. "After you left to go home, I went back. Ya just liked the lil mutt so much, I couldn't help myself. It was an impulse buy. Five seconds after I became a proud, new dog dad though, I felt like a total dumbass. But woulda felt like shit if I'd tried to give him back, so..." he shrugged, "I kept him."

My gaze returned to Marshmallow as my lips pursed to one side. He panted happily back up at me. "...I didn't see him that one time Saïx had me over for dinner. How'd you manage to hide him?"

"Stashed him away at Xion's for the night. Couldn't risk you finding him and realizing what a twitterpated bonehead I was," he snerked as the car propelled us forward once more.

I bit back a little grin. "But it's okay for me to find out now?"

"Well yeah, course! Since you're my girl and all now. Back before we were dating, me buying your dog was weird and possibly a lil creepy." He shot me a smirk, "But _now_ it's just sweet and endearing!"

"If you say so," I murmured, only listening with half an ear as I smooshed and squished the pup's face.

His head turned slightly towards me and I could practically feel the slight narrowing of his eyes behind his aviators. "...crap, I'm gonna have to compete for your affections with that damn fleabag now, aren't I?"

I struggled to keep a straight face as my finger booped Marshmallow's cute little nose. "Is it really a competition if you've already lost?"

"Oh-ho, I see how it is," he snorted as he checked the rearview. "Well don't be too alarmed if next time ya see me, I'm down one dog and up one pair of a brand spanking new white, poofy earmuffs. The two things'll be totally unrelated. Pure coincidence."

I gave a tiny, amused huff and rolled my eyes. Then I leaned over to press a kiss to his cheek. "Thank you for the puppy. You're very sweet."

He ruffled his hair, "Shit, if it's always gonna make you this happy, I'll have to buy myself more gifts!" I made a noncommittal noise in my throat, all my focus diverted once more to playing with the dog. Lea gave a defeated sigh but smiled. Then he asked, "So… how's Anna been doing?"

I frowned slightly. "...okay. She's… better."

The altercation with Hans had been a few days ago now. By the time Anna had gotten through with him, he'd staggered out of my apartment with a limp and a black eye. I hadn't heard from him since, though part of me did wonder if he was just taking time to lick his wounds before coming back to further profess his supposed love for me. Guess it just depended how much of a hard time his parents would give him and how easily he'd break under the pressure.

As for Anna, once she'd spent all her rage on rearranging Hans' face and had nothing left, she'd proceeded to bawl her eyes out. She never took breakups this hard, but apparently she'd really thought Hans was it. The One. After such a rude awakening to the fact that he wasn't and having her heart shattered, I didn't blame her for having a bit of a breakdown. She'd ended up staying over and Rayne and I had turned it into a sort of a girls night to try and cheer her up. We'd binge streamed romcoms until 3 a.m. which honestly, with Anna wailing through every single one, I had no clue if they were making things better or worse. But she was the one who kept putting them on one after the other, so I'd just let her as I hadn't had the heart to deny her.

In the days since, it was obvious Anna was still down, even though she tried to hide it behind sunny smiles and loud laughs. Still, she seemed to be on the road to recovery.

"She's strong," I added softly after a brief lull, fingers absently toying with Marshmallow's paws. "She'll bounce back. Just needs a little more time, that's all."

Lea's phone suddenly gave a small _ding_ , announcing that we had arrived and our destination could be found on the right. Luckily a spot had just opened up on the curb for him to turn the car into. I unbuckled my seatbelt as the engine shut down and opened my door, stepping out onto the sidewalk. My arms were still holding the puppy and I unfortunately had to concede that I probably shouldn't bring him inside. Spinning one-eighty, I set him back down inside the car and he immediately tried to hop out to follow me. My hands shot up to block him and he retaliated with sad eyes and a whimper.

Oh, this little con artist.

Laughing, I stroked his head soothingly, "Now now, Marshmallow, no need for all that… we'll only be gone for a few minutes, I promise."

"Awfully presumptuous of you, naming _my_ new pupper," Lea teased as he appeared at my side now, a paper shopping bag that he'd retrieved from the back seat on his way out of the car now dangling by the handle from his fingers. Rubbing a curled knuckle over his chin as he glanced skyward, he smirked. "I was thinking something more along the lines of…" now he stretched a hand out, dragging his splayed fingers through the air as if the words themselves were magically materializing in front of our very eyes, "...Imperius, the White Death and Destroyer of Worlds."

I shot him a dull look. "...bit long to fit on a dog tag, don't you think?"

"Not if we use _really_ teeny font!" his grin twitched wider and my eyelids just drooped in response. "Fine, fine, ya have a point. Hm… compromise? How 'bout... Marshmallow, Destroyer of Worlds?"

One corner of my lips turned up, "I can live with that." Giving the puppy one final scritch under the chin, I cooed, "Be back soon, Mr Worlds," before locking and closing the car door. As I turned to fully face Lea, it came to my attention that he was now scrutinizing me with a squint and a little frown. My eyebrows knit together. "...what?"

Without a word, he abruptly bent forward and friggin' _licked the side of my neck_.

With a small yelp, I squirmed and jumped back, hand flying up to clamp over the now damp skin as my cheeks threatened to spontaneously combust. Lea's face twisted in distaste as he spat and razzed his tongue, "Yeck, concealer. Thought so. Knew there was no possible way my masterpiece healed and faded _that_ quickly."

Ah. He was talking about the Mother Hickey. I nodded with a sigh, "Yeah, Rayne helped me figure out how to cover it up."

Stepping closer, he hooked a finger under my chin to gently turn my head to one side so he could take a better look, muttering, "Hmph. Nice job, Raindrop. Matched your tone perfectly, never woulda even known it's there. But also… so _not_ cool. I'm an arteest! A maestro deserves to have his pièce de résistance on display for all the world to see."

"Not when your canvas is my neck, _maestro_ ," I snorted, getting on tiptoe to plant a quick peck to his lips as I took the bag from him. Inside it was a powder blue sundress, a pair of ankle boots, and a phone book.

He gave a tiny pout, but it quickly melted into a grin as he took hold of my free hand, lacing our fingers together. "So… you ready for this?"

I spotted the little store we'd come here for and started walking towards it. "Ready as I'll ever be, I suppose."

"Ya sure the dude even wants all this junk back? It's more than a lil used now."

"Well, it's a _used_ clothing store, so I'm sure it's fine," I shrugged.

Lea chuckled, "That old phone book is rumpled from water damage and is practically a rat's nest. No, scratch that cuz calling it that sullies the good name of rat's nests everywhere."

"It doesn't matter," I exhaled heavily. "I told the man I'd bring it all back and that's what I'm doing. If he won't take any of it, then I'm happy to pay him back for it all _with_ interest." On that note, we stepped through the automated sliding doors beneath the big sign that read Wandering Oaken's Trading Post.

The store looked the same as the last time I'd been here. The cluttered racks, the secondhand clothing all but bursting out of every nook and cranny, the rustic decorations on the walls and hanging from the ceiling… all of it exactly the same. It honestly surprised me a little. I would've expected _some_ changes since it felt like my last visit had been absolute ages ago. I had to remind myself that in reality, it'd hardly even been two months since.

I hoped the man (employee? proprietor?) who'd assisted me back then wasn't _also_ exactly the same as I remembered him. All angry and stocky and _big_. I gulped, feeling my breathing turn shallow as I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. Surely, he wasn't still mad and wouldn't rip me limb from limb on sight, right? And surely, my memory had to be lying to me and exaggerating. No one, not even Lea, was that _hulkingly_ ginormous… right?

"Hoo-hoo! Big summer blowout! Half off swim su-" the familiar voice immediately cut off as its owner, that same man I'd recalled, locked eyes with me from across the store. "You!"

Nope. He was _exactly_ as terrifyingly ginormous as I remembered him.

Suddenly - and I don't quite know _how_ exactly, because I didn't remember moving - I was hiding behind Lea.

Huh. Seemed like my latent surprise teleportation powers had activated to catch me unawares once again!

Taking a deep, steadying breath to settle my nerves and get a grip, I slowly creeped back out from behind him to respond to the man with a shaky smile and a tiny, "Me?"

He abruptly came charging at me and I swallowed a squeak, screwing my eyes shut.

This was it. The final countdown. The last roundup. I could already see the fabled white light. Was already watching my life flash before my eyes. Could hear an angelic choir singing somewhere. All but feel the-

Those giant tree trunks he had for arms unexpectedly wrapped themselves around me, crushing me to him in a spine-cracking hug that lifted me several feet off the ground and forced a surprised grunt out of me.

Um…?

"What is this?" I wheezed as I was swung to and fro like a ragdoll. "I don't understand what's happening."

Lea snerked, being absolutely _zero_ help as he simply crossed his arms and watched the absolute epitome of bear hugs continue. "Apparently, this is how he deals with shoplifters. His own unique brand o' vigilante justice."

"Well it's cruel and unusual punishment!" I croaked out, kicking my feet and trying to wriggle free. "How do I make him stop?!"

Miraculously, he chose that second to release me of his own accord, shooting me a big smile that took up over half his face, "Oh thank you, deary! Thank you!"

...okay, not quite the greeting I'd been expecting.

Like, at all.

Both eyebrows shot up my forehead as my hand went to rub at my elbow, "You, uh… you remember me?"

"Of course, deary!" he nodded eagerly, tapping his fingertips together.

I squinted at him uncertainly. "...and you remember that I… _stole_ from you?"

More enthusiastic nodding, "Ya, ya!"

...was I the only one totally bewildered right now?

My eyes darted over to exchange a brief glance with Lea, who just shrugged his shoulders.

Oh good, so it wasn't just me then.

Looking at the worker once more, I hesitated for a split second before awkwardly thrusting the bag out to him, heart thudding loudly in my ears as I began, "Well I… I brought it all back like I said I would… even the phone book! It's all still in decent shape… er, _except_ for the phone book, that is. I can compensate you for that though and… and the dress and shoes too, of course! That is, if that's what you'd prefer... _and_ I'll even pay inter-"

"Nonsense!" he gently pushed the bag back towards me. "Keep it all, it's yours. And your munny's no good here."

I stared at him blankly. "...I'm sorry, I'm confused."

The man beamed at me now, "Your dress, deary! The one you left behind in the fitting room and said I could have? I must say, that had to have been some costume party you came from! I sold that gown for enough munny to pay for all four of my sons' college tuitions! So I insist, keep those items! And please let me know if you see anything else in here that you'd like, ya?" A sudden low chime rang out overhead, signalling that another customer had walked into the shop. Gracing me with one final warm grin, he then plastered on his customer service face and walked past me, waggling his fingers in greeting, "Hoo-hoo! Big summer blowout!"

Frowning slightly, I watched him go before I heard Lea say in realization, "...you left your wedding dress here."

My fingers twisted and fidgeted with the bag handles. "Sort of… yeah."

He shook his head with a snort. "Shit, El, a gown like that made for your upscale, hoity-toity, blueblood wedding? You didn't shoplift, you way, _way_ overpaid!"

Feeling heat creeping into my face, I gave a tiny scowl and huffed, "Well, it certainly _felt_ like shoplifting, the way he was yelling and chasing after me when I ran out the store!"

"Babydoll, you just lost some serious street cred," he chuckled, pressing his lips to my temple. "Seriously though, just ditching it in some random fitting room? You coulda sold that thing for bookoo bucks and made this whole striking it out on your own thing _way_ easier on yourself."

"You said the same thing about my car back at my parents' home. But just like with the Ferrari, that dress was bought and paid for with my parents' munny," I sighed, crossing my arms. "I don't want to accept so much as even a single cent from them if I don't have to… I don't want to feel like I owe them anything. And I just… I didn't know what else to do with the dress, really. I just wanted to be rid of the wretched thing."

He tsked, tapping a finger to my nose, "Oh you. Always gotta do things the hard way, huh? Silly." Reaching for my hand, he then started us meandering about the shop, idly perusing the racks and shelves as he went on, "If it'd been me, I wouldn't have thought twice 'bout pawning that dress for some quick cash. What's the big deal where the munny came from? All that really matters is how you spend it to give yourself a better, happier life. Turn bad into good, ya know? I- _sweet!_ " he cried out abruptly, eyes lighting up as he happened upon a clump of feather boas draped across the corner of a chaotic, jam-packed shelf. Snagging one that was made of red feathers marked with black stripes, he wrapped it around his neck with a flourish before batting his eyelashes at me. "How do I look?"

I rubbed my fingers over my tiny smile. "Beautiful. Simply gorgeous."

"Damn skippy!" he chirped, now spotting a full length mirror nearby and moving to admire himself in it.

From insightful to kid playing dress-up in under two seconds flat. That _had_ to be some kind of record.

Seeing that the employee had returned to his post behind the cash register, I walked over to him. "Hi again. How much for one-"

There was a sudden giggle at my ear that was _distinctly_ Lea's, followed swiftly by a second feather boa being looped around my neck, this one comprised of blue feathers with white tips. With that, Lea zipped off once more, this time heading towards what looked to be the toy shelf.

I blinked in his wake, then shook my head with a soft hum of a laugh. "I'm sorry, how much for _two_ feather boas?"

"Holy shit, this orca action figure comes with a tiny machine gun! And-" Lea gasped, running back now to excitedly show it to me, "-it _also_ turns into a goddamn freaking _robot!_ "

Patting him on the cheek, I turned back to the cashier with a sigh, "And the toy too."

"For you, deary?" he asked, still happily tapping his fingers together. "Free of charge!"

My head rocked back slightly. "What? No, but-"

"Oh hell yes! Thanks, big guy, and have a great day!" Lea cut me off, snatching up my hand and bolting out the store, forcing me to stumble after him as the cashier called out after us to do the same.

As we exited through the automated doors back out onto the sidewalk, I said, "Lea, wait!" I dug in my heels, bringing us both to a lurching stop. Then I frowned over my shoulder back towards the little shop. "I'm not comfortable with this. He's only giving us this stuff because of that stupid dress and I told you already-"

"Don't look at it as benefiting offa your folks munny," he grinned, taking the bag from me to tuck the toy and his boa inside with the other stuff. Then he set to work uncoiling mine from around my neck. "Instead, try this on for size: ya did a good thing with that dress. Maybe even the best possible thing ya coulda done with it. You donated it to the worthy cause of paying for the education of that dude's small army of kids. And if that's not enough for you, here's another way to look at it: ya traded in a wedding dress worth a sultan's ransom and all you got in return was a handful of cruddy, secondhand junk that altogether costs _maybe_ twenty bucks max. On the divine cosmic scale of ethics, I think you can consider your conscience clear and your heart light as a feather."

Now fully freed from the feather boa, I released a tiny huff through my nose as I watched him slip it inside the bag too. "Well, when you put it that way…"

"It's settled then," he beamed, slinging an arm around my shoulders and guiding me back towards his car. "Now onto the next item on the list!"

My head tipped to one side. "There's more? But with this place checked off, I thought that was the whole list."

"Maybe _your_ list, but we haven't even begun to scratch the surface of _mine._ And first up is immediately correcting one epic fail on my part."

"Oh?" I arched an eyebrow at him.

He nodded, "Mm-hm! For ya see, I've been grossly neglectful in my boyfriend duties. Can you actually believe I have yet to take you out on our first proper date since officially becoming a couple?"

A tiny smile fought its way onto my lips. "For shame. The absolute scandal."

"I know, right? People are already beginning to talk, my good name is being dragged through the mud," he puffed out an overdramatic breath, shaking his head.

I laughed. "Well then, what did you have in mind?"

As we came to a stop next to his car, he tapped the window glass where Marshmallow was pressing his paws up against the other side while barking his little head off. "For starters, how 'bout we take this lil fellah to a park somewhere for a few hours? Once he's all played out, we can drop him off back at my place. Make it real quick, in and out before Saïx wakes up and realizes he's been unknowingly volunteered for doggo-sitting duty." Setting the bag down on the roof the car, he then faced me, taking both my hands in his as he idly started toying with my fingers and murmured, "Then I was thinking I could take ya somewhere nice. Maybe Le Grand Bistrot? And after that…" he gave a lazy shrug, that dimple of his emerging, "well, guess we'll just see where the night takes us from there."

My eyes crinkled as I stared up the few inches that separated us. "Sounds perfect."

It'd been one wild and, at far too many points, absolutely _absurd_ ride that had brought me here. And it was far from over for I still had a long road ahead of me. I'd yet to even determine what exactly I wanted the future to hold for me, and that was okay. I could hardly be expected to have the rest of my life already planned and mapped out after experiencing only a couple short months of freedom. Come now, that would be unrealistic.

But it didn't truly matter that nothing was really decided yet. What mattered was that _I_ was the one who would get to decide, no one else. And for the moment, I was just deciding to focus on what was immediately before me. Today, I had a date with my boyfriend. Tomorrow would be a shift at my job in a mall ice cream shop. And the day after would bring the start of rehearsals for community theater. All in all, it was nothing grand, nothing fancy… but it made me happy. And for now, that was enough. More than enough. I could figure out the rest in my own time, and that sounded pretty good to me.

In fact, it sounded absolutely amazing.

**_THE END_ **

**… _sorta?_**

* * *

_**Author's Note:** _ _And thus we come full circle... it ends where it all began way back in chapter one... cheesy, I know XD Okay, I rarely finish stories - this'll only be like the third time I've done it over the past 2 decades of my writing career, so factor that in however you will in judging this final chapter xD I know, it was stupidly, cavity-inducingly sweet and not a lot happened, but damnit it's my story and I'll end it how I want to! Oh, and the toy Lea found wasn't a reference to anything, it was just something stupid I found on the internet that I figured the goofball would go absolutely nuts over xD_

_So, you probably have questions about that "...sorta?" at the end there xD Well that, my friends, has to do with the good news I mentioned that I had for ya'll a couple chapters back! Although the big, main plot of the story is now complete, there will be *drum roll*... bonus chapters! Wooo! These are more like self-contained one-shots that generally have time passage between them anywhere from a few days to like a month with no real overarching plot connecting them, which is why I'm not considering them a part of the "main" story. However, I will still be just slapping them at the end of this story, keeping it all in one place as opposed to posting them as separate fanfics, just because I can! I do what I want, yo! These bonus chapters will cover various events (relationship and non-relationship alike) for our new happy couple - as well as some that are just for pure funsies due to random ideas popping into my head that I really wanted to write xD I just always write the "how they got together" story and have never written them as a couple, so I'm excited to finally have a good excuse to do that! Plus now I can share with you guys how things go from here - stuff like relationship milestones, fam drama, Elsa's further adventures in theater, and much more! If you guys have any ideas of your own for a one-shot you'd like to see, please let me know! I make no promises about actually writing it, BUT there's a very good chance I'll read your suggestion, the plot bunnies in my head will go wild and I'll have no choice but to write it anyway xD_

_ANYWAY! I already have written and completed a few of these one-shots, so my once-a-week updates can continue for a little while longer! But fair warning - when (not if, WHEN) my updates catch up to as far as I've written, my once-a-week updates will be reduced to whenever-the-chapter-is-frigging-done updates xD_

_Whew! I think that's a wrap! Thank you so much for reading my lil story here, I super duper appreciate it! I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did writing it! And an extra BIG thank you to those of you who have left a kudos and shared with me your thoughts and feelings on this story so far! ESPECIALLY to those of you who've left feedback on each and every single chapter (or close to) of my story! Hearing from you guys always brings the biggest, goofiest smile to my face! Remember, feedback is not only welcome, but highly encouraged and super appreciated!_

_See ya next week for the first bonus chapter, which is a silly, for funsies one-shot xD I'll give you a hint... helmets are involved! Ooooo, what could it be?! Stay tuned and find out!_


	31. Chapter 31

"Do you think Kristoff is cute?" Anna asked, elbows propped on the table and chin in both hands as she watched the man in question from across the food court.

"You kiddin'? The dude's a hunkasaurus. Total dreamboat," Lea replied distractedly, not looking up from his current task. He was seated atop a different table, this one behind me, his feet perched to either side of me on the armrests of my chair as he played with my hair, slowly braiding and unbraiding it only to rebraid it again. "Better snap him up quick. If you don't slice yourself off a piece of that beefcake, I might beatcha to it."

My sister blew out an amused _pft_ through her teeth as she looked over at him. "Sure, like he'd even give _you_ the time of day."

"Oh-ho, trust me. If I wanted that boy, I'd have him."

"Anna," I sighed, interjecting myself back into the conversation. "Focus, please."

She blinked owlishly back at me, clearly having already forgotten my question. Or quite possibly not even having heard it in the first place. "...on…?" she asked at last, dragging the word out uncertainly.

I exhaled softly. "About Mother and Father?"

Her eyes darted to the left as she squinted and tried, "As in… do _they_ think Kristoff is cute?"

My eyelids drooped and I gave a flat, "No."

Today found me with not one visitor on my lunch break, but two. Lea came as little shock. Even though he had the day off, he'd lately taken to doing his homework here in the food court whenever I was on the clock. That way, he could spend my lunches with me, not to mention score free ice cream throughout the day. Anna, on the other hand, had been an unexpected surprise, but always a welcome one of course. However, it was quickly becoming apparent that it probably wasn't really me she'd come to see.

Not if the way she kept eyeing my coworker as he ran the ice cream counter was any indication.

It'd been a few weeks now since her rather explosive breakup with Hans. Given that she normally got over past boyfriends in under a day, maybe two _tops_ , the fact that it'd taken her this long to quit moping over him said something. But it seemed at long last she was back to her old, perky self again and all but wearing a "cute, single and ready to mingle" sandwich board sign. And apparently it was Kristoff's lucky day, for it seemed my sister had set her mingle-crosshairs on him as her latest conquest.

I didn't know whether to congratulate the guy or tell him to run. My sister would eat him alive.

Anna was now staring at me expectantly, waiting for me to elaborate. I bit my bottom lip, looking down as my fingers absently began to trace the snowflake pattern of my stockings. "I just… I was wondering… how Mother and Father were doing, that's all."

I'd still yet to speak to them since the little blowout at their house the weekend of Grandfather's birthday. If they weren't going to contact me, I _certainly_ wasn't going to make any effort to reach out to them either. Still, I couldn't deny that it weighed on me a bit. I'd mostly been trying to keep my mind off it, trying to distract myself by throwing all my attention and energy into rehearsals.

She frowned then puffed out a heavy breath, causing her lips to flap. "Ya know, I'm not sure really… Fine, I guess? The same? They're not really on speaking terms with me since they found out about me and Butthead."

If you couldn't guess, that was her oh so charming nickname for Hans now.

Not to mention the _only_ name anyone was allowed to refer to him as in Anna's presence these days.

"Ah," I breathed, fingers fidgeting with the hem of my work skirt. "...I see."

Her lips pursed to one side. "Now that I think about it though… them and Grandpa haven't really been on speaking terms _either_ lately. But no clue if that's so much as his choice or theirs."

"Oh? Huh…" my brow furrowed and my head tipped to one side.

What could it mean?

"You should talk to 'em, ya know," came Lea's low voice suddenly as he hunched down next to my ear.

A tiny scowl twisted my face as I glanced over at him. He quirked an eyebrow back at me from beneath my Ice Palace cap, which he was currently wearing backwards. I huffed and crossed my arms, "If _they_ want to talk to _me_ , they know where to find me."

He snorted and sat up straight once more, his fingers returning to gently combing through my hair, eliciting a tingle in my scalp that made me shiver. "Someone has to be the first one."

"Yeah. Them," I harrumphed.

Now he pressed his lips to the back of my head before his hand ruffled my bangs. "You can be so stubborn sometimes, ya know that?"

No comment.

"Right!" Anna was abruptly hopping up to her feet and pumping a fist as she set her determined eyes on Kristoff once more. "I'm gonna march up to that boy and work my magic! Prepare to have your socks knocked off, you big sexy manbeast!" She then smoothed a hand over her hair, tugged on the neckline of her dress to flash a little more cleavage, and took one confident step towards the Ice Palace.

That was as far as she got before, "Hold it!" A hand shot out to snag her elbow, stopping her in her tracks. "We need to talk to you."

Anna blinked down at the offending hand, then at its owner, Rayne. She'd just shown up with a grinning and waving Kairi at her side.

Where'd _they_ come from? I hadn't even seen either of them approaching.

"...me?" Anna asked, pointing at herself as both eyebrows flew up her forehead.

My roomie nodded then turned her eyes towards me to clarify, " _Both_ of you."

Huh. This now brought the count up to _four_ people dropping by to see me on my lunch break today. Never before had I been in such high demand.

Had I become, dare I say it… _popular?_

Dear god, I hope not!

Rayne's gaze narrowed on Lea. "Beat it, Red. This doesn't concern you."

" _You_ beat it!" Lea shot back as his arms hugged me from behind, pulling me back against his chest. He made a small _hmph_ that I more felt than heard as he rested his chin atop my head, "This is _my_ El Time. You're not allowed to cut in on it, you _live_ with her."

She rolled her eyes. "You two have plans together tonight once her shift is over, right?"

"So?"

" _So_ you can give up five minutes of your precious El Time for me and Kai here to have a quick chat with her. Now go on, shoo," she dismissed him with a bored flick of her wrist.

He grumbled, "Ugh, fine. Looks like the kiddos just punched in over at Pizza Planet, so guess I could go grace their sad existences with my glorious presence." Releasing me, he pulled my elastic band off his wrist so he could tie my hair back into its ponytail. Then he was nuzzling his face into my neck, planting a quick peck there before whispering in my ear, "Be back in a sec. You'll miss me, I know, but try to keep the tears in check, hm?"

In response, I turned my head to kiss him on the nose… followed by smothering his face with my hand and shoving him away. He sniggered, pushing himself off the table.

"Hope you're ready to have your ass curb stomped tomorrow, Organization scum," Kairi slyly smirked at him.

"Big talk coming from someone's who lost the last two years runnin' now, Princess twerp," he tugged down his left lower eyelid with his middle finger and razzed his tongue at her before turning and jogging off, still wearing my cap.

Eyes flicking back and forth between him and Kairi, Anna asked, "What was _that_ about?"

"Laser tag," I grinned softly as my gaze followed Lea for a second before I reached back to tighten my ponytail and glanced at the rest of ladies once more. "It's practically all he's been talking about for the last week."

"Mm-hm," Kairi nodded as she and Rayne pulled up chairs to sit with us. "It's also what we want to talk to you about. We're here to recruit you two!"

My head rocked back slightly. Then my brows knit together as my eyes darted about. Uh, heh… no thanks! Checking my phone, I stood up quickly, "Er… would you look at the time? I'm due back from lunch! I should go cloc-"

"Sit!" Anna snagged my wrist and jerked me back down into my seat with a firm _thud_. "You still got at _least_ another ten minutes, liar!"

"Snitch," I grumbled back.

Lifting her chin with a smug little smirk, she looked back at the other two. "Please, continue."

"You know Space Paranoids, right? The laser tag place here in the mall?" Rayne began, addressing Anna more so than me, seeing as how I already had some clue as to what was going on, thanks to Lea. "Well some years back, a buncha us rented the entire place out for like a whole day and it was a total blast. We all had so much fun that we decided to make it an annual thing. More and more kept joining every year and as people kept getting more and more competitive, it wasn't long before two official teams were formed. Lea's group calls themselves the Organization."

"Such a buncha dorks," Kairi shook her head with a snerk. Then she was pointing back and forth between her and Rayne, "Our team is _way_ cooler. We're the Princesses."

Anna bit back a grin and cocked one eyebrow at my roommate. "The Princesses? Really?"

She closed her eyes and heaved a sigh, "Kai's idea. It stuck."

"Hey now. Princesses are cute _and_ kick serious butt," Kairi cockily flipped her hair back over her shoulder.

"Anyway," Rayne chimed back in, "we thought this year those Organization losers were gonna have to forfeit because they were down two teammates that moved away recently. However, not only did those jerks manage to snag the mall security guards as replacements, but now _we're_ down two people ourselves."

"Really? Who?" Anna eagerly leaned forward in her seat, thoroughly invested now.

"Me," she muttered, face twisting sourly as she gestured down to her belly. At five months along now, she _was_ starting to look very much pregnant. She huffed indignantly, " _Some_ people think it might not be safe for the baby."

By the tone of her voice, I was guessing "some people" included her husband.

"You _are_ getting pretty big now, Ray-Ray," Anna snickered. "Maybe it's a good idea-"

"Shush!" she glared, striking up a finger in warning. "I get enough of that from Riku!"

Kairi spoke up once more, "Our other person who's out this time round is Ariel. She's got bronchitis."

I blinked. "Again?!"

"Again," she and Rayne groaned in unison. Kairi then beamed, clapping her hands together once, "That's where you two come in! Could ya please, please, _pretty_ please help us outta this major jam here and top off our team? Whaddya say?"

"Sweet! Count us in!" Anna declared, excitedly balling her hands into fists in front of her chest.

"Correction. You can count _her_ in," I touched Anna's shoulder, then placed a hand over my chest, "and _me_ out."

Kairi's face fell, "But we need you!"

I snorted, "No you don't, I'm the _last_ person you need. I've never played laser tag before. I've never even held a, uh… um…" I grimaced, floundering for the right word before saying lamely, "...laser… beam… shooter… _thingie_ ever in my life!"

"You can just call it a gun, sweetie," Rayne cooed, reaching over to pat my hands.

"But that's the beauty of it! That doesn't matter! We don't need you to be _good_ ," Kairi argued before a tiny, wicked smile broke out across her face. "We just need you to take care of Lea."

My head tilted to the right as I frowned. "...Lea?"

Rayne nodded, "Yup! He's one of their best players, along with Xigbar and Saïx."

"Saïx?" I echoed, squinting at her. "You mean to tell me he's awake during the daytime for this?"

"There's three days a year that dude'll brave the sun, and our yearly laser tag game is one of those days. He takes it _surprisingly_ seriously," Rayne explained solemnly.

Wrinkling my nose up at the ceiling, I inhaled and exhaled loudly. "I still don't understand how I'm supposed to help you with Lea, especially if he's as good as you say he is."

"Simple!" Kairi chirped. "You just need to keep him distracted! Mess with his head a lil. Throw him off his game just long enough for the rest of us to knock him outta the match early."

I furrowed my brow at her. "...and how exactly am I supposed to do that?"

"Isn't it obvious?" She gave me an impish wink. "Use your feminine wiles."

"My…?" A crease formed between my eyebrows now as I stared down at my lap. "...do I even have those?"

Kairi laughed, "Course you do! All girls have them."

"Yeah, even you, Sis!" Anna pinched my cheek. I shut one eye against it, swatting her hand away.

"Trust me, all Elsa has to do is _exist_ around that boy and he's a total goner. He'll be eliminated so fast, he won't even know what hit him," Rayne muttered to Kairi, who nodded in agreement. Then my roomie was locking eyes with me once more, "So how 'bout it, sweetpea? Will you help us out?"

I shifted in my seat uncomfortably. "I… uh…"

Anna nudged her shoulder with mine, "C'mon, Sis, pleeeeeeeease? I'm super friggin' pumped, this sounds like so much fun!"

Clasping my hands between hers, Kairi pleaded, "Help us, Elsa-Wan Kenobi! You're our only hope!"

"Well, I… er…"

Then they did it.

I was the victim of a triple-decker puppy-dog-eyes pout.

Perhaps I could have withstood one, _even_ if it was Anna's. And maybe, just _maybe_ I could've even resisted the combined force of two. But three?

I defy _anyone_ to say no to that.

Shoulders slumping, I gave a long drawn out sigh. "...what time tomorrow?"

All three of them threw up their hands and cheered. After they took a few seconds to settle back down, Kairi said, "Don't worry, we'll get all the deets to you soon! And remember, you're our ace in the hole. Our secret weapon!"

A tiny gulp. "I am?"

"Yup! So don't breathe a single word of this to Lea!"

* * *

And breathe a word I did not. Thus, the next day…

"What the…? Oh, _hell_ no!"

At Lea's outburst, I glanced towards him as Kairi, Anna and I walked out into the Space Paranoids lobby. We'd just been freshly geared up with blasters, half-helmets and vests - and by vests, I meant small, impossible-to-hit (at least _I_ thought so anyway) targets over our hearts held in place by glow-in-the-dark, suspender-like straps that latched back behind our shoulders where a second target was located. The helmets also had targets on them, as well as see-through plastic visors that covered our eyes.

The lobby seemed to be split by an invisible line, with what looked to be the Princesses grouped up together on one side and what I could only assume was the Organization on the other, given that Lea was standing with them as he glared daggers at Kairi from across the room. She merely shot him a cheeky smirk and called, "Problem, beanstalk?"

He marched over, crossing enemy lines to glare down his nose at the considerably shorter redhead. "Uh-uh. Nope. Not allowed. I call foul. Objection!"

She snorted, unconcerned as she checked her nails and shrugged. "Dunno what has your panties in such a twist, big guy. Care to enlighten me?"

He jabbed a finger in my direction while still directing his snarl at her, "Get her outta here. She's not part of this, find someone else."

Kairi scoffed, "There's nothing in the rules declaring girlfriends off limits. In fact, there _are_ no rules."

"Well there _should_ be! In fact, I'll draw some up right this damn second!" he huffed, tucking his blaster into the back of his pants before storming over to a counter, behind which a pasty-complexioned employee currently stood. Lea snatched a pen off the countertop before stomping back over to us, angrily jamming his hand into one of his pockets and fishing out something crumpled. Then he slammed it to the wall and attempted to smooth it (without much success), uncapped the pen with his teeth and began scrawling across it.

"Rule 1…" he enunciated as his pen furiously scribbled, "...no… girlfriends…" He paused, then amended, "or boyfriends…" Another pause, then he scribbled it all out and started over. "Rule 1… no… smooch-buddies…" he underlined those first two words three times before continuing," ...on opposite… teams. Period. That's it. That's all… the rules." His pen stabbed down hard with finality before he shoved the crinkled thing with his handwriting all over it in front of Kairi's face. "There. Rules. Happy?"

Kairi dully stared at what he was holding, unfazed. Then her eyelids drooped. "...that's a napkin."

Lea rolled his eyes, "So what? Doesn't make 'em any less ironclad!"

She gingerly took "the rules" from him, eyeing them with a thoughtful nod for a second. Then she looked him dead in the eye as she ripped them in two, forcing a horrified gasp out of him as the shredded halfs fluttered to the ground. "Sorry, I don't recognize your napkin rules. She's playing, so suck it up."

He narrowed his eyes down at her. "I'm onto you. I know what you're doing."

"Oh? What, pray tell, is it that I'm doing?" she asked all sugar-sweet like.

His face pinched and there was a low, annoyed growl in his throat. Then he pointed two fingers at his eyes, then at her, then back and forth a few more times. "I see you, villain!" he hissed before turning away from her to address me now, his face and tone softening. "...can I talk to you real quick? Please?"

I fidgeted with my gun, struggling to keep a straight face after the sheer ridiculousness of the tiny spat I'd just witnessed, _especially_ with them both wearing their little cheap, plastic helmets the whole time and looking absolutely absurd. At my nod, he slipped his hand into mine and led me over to an empty corner of the lobby where we could chat with some small amount of privacy.

"If those girls pressured you into doing this, you can ignore 'em, ya know," he told me quietly, shooting the Princesses one final scowl out of the corner of his eye. "You don't hafta do this if you don't want to."

I bit back a grin. He actually kind of looked adorable right now, sulking like an overgrown child behind that silly eye-visor he was wearing. It was hard to take him seriously. "It's okay. Really. I'll admit, I was a bit nervous and hesitant at first, but this also sounds like it might be kind of fun. It's fine. I _want_ to play."

"But _I_ don't want you to," he frowned, his fingers reaching out to idly fiddle with the tip of my braid. I don't think he even realized he was doing it. "...some of the guys don't hold back, El. Once that starting buzzer blasts, all bets are off and it can get pretty rough in there. You could get seriously hurt."

I slowly shook my head, "But the other girls-"

"-have played this before and know what they're getting into. _You_ don't," he insisted.

I made a small _hmph_ in my throat as my stubbornness began to spark. "How bad could it be? _Really?_ " Glancing back towards the Princesses, I pointed out one of them in particular. "What about her, right there? She's, what… ten? Eleven years old? If you got grade schoolers playing, I think I'll be fine."

" _She's_ one of their scariest players. Seriously, they hop that kid up on a mega shit ton of sugar from the Wonderland candy store until she's stark raving mad, then set her loose to wreak unholy hell in the laser tag grounds."

Huh. On second glance, the little girl _did_ look twitchy. Almost freakishly so.

Sighing, I looked back up at Lea once more. "Look, I told Kairi and the others I would play, and that's what I'm going to do. I'd feel bad backing out now as I doubt they'd be able to replace me at the last second like this. I _can_ take care of myself, you know. I promise I'll be careful, but I _am_ doing this," I brought a comforting hand up to stroke his cheek, my eyes crinkling slightly. "So suck it up."

He snorted, dragging a hand along the nape of his neck and puffing out a heavy breath. "Fine, I guess I can't stop ya. But know this," he hunched down to my eye-level, tapping me lightly on the nose, "if we cross paths in there, don't think I'll go easy on ya."

"Good," I grinned back. "Neither will I."

"Oh-ho, pretty sure of ourselves, are we?" he smiled, rubbing a finger over his chin now. "In that case, care to put a lil wager on this?"

I turned my head to one side, shooting him some side-eye. "...I'm listening."

"How 'bout… whoever is the last one standing between the two of us, wins. And if _I_ win…" his eyes hooded as he ducked down next to my ear, his voice silky and low as he continued, "...you ravage me senseless tonight. Maybe while wearing that lil mini skirt I like ya in so much."

My face warmed. Flirting was a part of relationships that I still wasn't fully accustomed to just yet. Hans had never really done it and it's not like I could simply brush it off as Lea's empty teasing anymore. Clearing my throat, I just asked, "And if I win?"

He gave a soft chuckle, nipping at my earlobe. "Then _I'm_ the one who ravages _you_ senseless."

A tiny smirk tugged at my lips. "...maybe while _you're_ the one wearing the mini skirt?"

Lea shot up straight, eyes wide. Then he laughed, "Deal!"

I stared at him blankly. "I was _joking_."

"I wasn't. Be careful whatcha wish for," he singsonged, wagging a finger in my face. I merely drooped my eyelids at him and he snerked. Then his hand was cupping the back of my head, pulling me in for a sound kiss to the lips and murmuring, "Good luck."

"You too," my arms hugged his neck as I gave him a light peck in return. "You're going to need it."

"You have _way_ too much confidence for someone who's never played before," he snorted and I just shrugged. Then we reluctantly parted and started making our way back to our respective teams.

I glanced around as I walked, getting a better look at the lobby. It had a very retro futuristic feel to it, what with all its hard angular lines that glowed neon blue and red decorating the walls, ceiling and floor. Even that pale employee behind the counter was dressed head-to-toe to match the room. His nametag read TRON - I had to wonder if that was an _actual_ real name or (more likely) just the name he was assigned while on the job. On the wall beyond the two teams were a pair of doors, one that was dark grey and blue like the colors of the Princesses' helmets, while the other was white and red like the Organization's. I could only assume each group would enter through their matching door once the game was about to start.

Opposite the room from there was a wall made entirely of thick glass, through which could be seen the front desk where customers came in to sign up and pay for laser tag rounds. That area had several flatscreens hanging on the walls showing live feeds of various sections of the laser tag arena for onlookers to observe the match in realtime, so the place was currently packed with a small mob of people who'd come to watch our little face-off. It seemed this annual event drew quite the crowd.

While I didn't recognize most of the faces, there were a few familiar ones here and there. Aqua, Ventus, and Terra grouped together on one side… Yuffie and Leon on another… and over next to Sora, I could even spot Naminé there with a sketchpad in hand. I think she was drawing us players all decked out in our gear. And was that… _Vanitas_ , of all people, trying to cozy up next to her? She seemed oblivious to him. Rayne, on the other hand, most definitely was _not_. She shoved her baby bump in between the two of them, forcing Vanitas to stumble back a step as she plucked Naminé's art pad from her hands and smacked the goth lord across the face with it. She then handed it back to Naminé, who just went back to sketching as if nothing had happened. Then Rayne was smiling and waving at me through the glass as Riku stepped up behind her to slip his arms around her waist and rest his chin on her shoulder.

As I waved back and took my spot next to Anna with the rest of the girls, I heard a wry voice coming from the enemy team, "Trouble with the lil missus, Flamesilocks?"

"Bite me, Cyclops," Lea snapped as he rejoined his team, his sour mood apparently resurging.

"Heh. As if," that same smug voice shot back. It belonged to a tall man with a jagged scar on one cheek and an eyepatch that looked rather odd to say the least when paired with his helmet's visor. His long black and grey-streaked ponytail swished as he then bent low into a dramatic, mocking bow directed towards another guy with long silver hair who I recognized as the supervisor over at Cinema XIII. "If I may do the honors, oh illustrious leader?"

The man - presumably their team captain - said nothing, just gave an uninterested flick of his hand.

That was all the go-ahead Eyepatch needed. Raising his voice so both teams could hear, he called, "Alright, listen up, scrubs! For most of you, this ain't your first rodeo, but I'll give a quick rundown anyhow seeing as we have a few first-timers in the ranks today. Here's the short and skinny of it: This first round - as in the _only_ round that _really_ matters - is one shot, one kill. Meaning all it takes is one hit and," he smirked, dragging his thumb across his throat, "you're out. Luckily for you gals, friendly fire has been disabled. This is where we separate the real men from the thumb-suckers. And there are zero points this first match, so when all you pretty, pretty Princesses are KO'd-"

" _When?_ " Kairi sneered, narrowing her eyes at him from across the room.

He flashed her a toothy grin. "You hard of hearing, Strawberry Shortcake? Must be all that glitter and unicorns jamming up your earholes. Yes, _when_ all you ladies are down for the count," he jerked his thumb to his chest, " _we_ win. And for any boohooers out there who wanna play by points and multiple lives, don't worry. All the matches after this one are wimp-friendly. But might I suggest instead of relying on those lame handicaps, you all just get good like me?" he puffed up his chest, planting one hand on his hip while twirling his blaster in the other.

Suddenly the target on his vest lit up red and started beeping loudly, indicating he'd been hit. His assailant - a chick on our team with long, wild, curly red hair - lowered her gun with a snort before roaring with laughter while several of the other girls joined in.

Eyepatch chuckled, "Nice potshot, Hotshot. Save it for the game."

I had to wonder if this guy was Xigbar - one of the Organization's three best players besides Lea and Saïx, or so I'd been told. He certainly seemed cocky enough, that was for sure. Then again, cocky didn't necessarily mean he was any good.

As I eyed the other Organization members, I spotted a few I recognized from around the mall. The team leader wasn't the only one from the movie theater - that kid with the emo haircut was there too. So was Larxene, the blonde chick sporting the funky hairdo. I'd finally had a chance to learn her name, seeing as how she was assistant director in the musical I'd joined. The director himself, Marluxia, was there too, as well as Demyx who was helping provide our play's music and who also worked at The Blue Sitar, if I was recalling correctly. Then there was Roxas and Xion, who were doing their best to perk up a still slightly pouty Lea. Saïx was near at hand to those three, although he seemed to be keeping to himself and concentrating… or more like… meditating? Maybe... _honing_ for the upcoming match? Wow, he certainly _did_ take this seriously!

Next in the lineup were the two mall security guards who I'd met that night I'd accidentally pushed The Anger Button on the soft serve/milkshake machine - their names were escaping me at the moment. And lastly, there were two blondes. The first one had a goatee and piercings and I believe I remembered seeing him working at the magic shop here at the mall. The other one wore his hair long and had a chilly expression. I don't think I'd noticed him around the mall ever. In any case, I suppose there was a chance one of _them_ could be Xigbar too.

A siren blast suddenly blared out through the overheard speakers, making me jump as the team doors slid open. Whoops and hollers from the players filled the room as they all started shuffling into their corresponding doorways. Anna hooked her arm through mine, flashed me a grin and dragged me along to follow the others.

"Don't worry, big guy, we'll try to return her to you in one piece," Kairi gave Lea one last parting shot. In response, he merely flipped her the bird as he disappeared through his door and all the Princesses erupted into cackles.

Beyond the doorway was a long winding hallway that got darker and darker the deeper we went, the only light source now coming from those neon glowing lines above, below and all around us. The further in we got, the more it began to look like we had somehow found our way inside a ginormous computer from the 80s. Eventually it brought us to another big room that was decorated in nothing but blue lines - our team's HQ, if I had to take a guess. There were three more sealed doors that would probably lead out to the rest of the map once they opened up, with huge, light-up timers over each one counting down until the start of the match. We had less than five minutes.

Quick introductions were made - I actually knew a handful of the Princesses already. There was Snow White and Tiana, who were in the musical with me. Aurora, who I remembered from auditions. Belle from Friday night drinks at the 7th Heaven. Then some girls I recalled seeing around the mall and was just now getting to know their names: Cindy from The Glass Slipper, Jasmine from Cave of Wonders, and Rapunzel from Hair, Here, Everywhere - gosh, how was she not going to trip over all that hair of hers while she ran around playing laser tag?!

"And this," Kairi went on, gesturing towards the redhead who'd landed a hit on Xigbar earlier during his little speech, "is Merida from over at DunBroch Goods, the camping and sporting goods store. She's our best shot."

"You're damn right I am!" she declared proudly in a thick Scottish accent. "And I've been putting extra time in over at the archery range! All those scaffy dolts aren't gonna know what hit 'em!"

Next Kairi was nodding towards the little twitchy girl. "This here is Alice. She's Luxord's baby sister from over on the other team." I smiled and Anna began to wave, but Kairi grabbed her wrist and lowered it with a subtle shake of her head, whispering, "Try not to make eye contact."

Apparently lost in the sugar-rush sauce, Alice just gave another twitch.

"And last but most certainly not least, this is Kida from Atlantis Electronics," Kairi pointed to a girl with long white hair and a blue face tattoo who grinned big, "annnnnnd Moana from Heart of Te Fiti, the lil surf outlet we have here." The chick with a mane of frizzy black hair next to Kida wiggled her fingers in greeting.

"Right, that's everyone! Now, onto the plan of attack!" Kairi clapped her hands and rubbed them together with an evil gleam in her eyes. "Everyone knows their positions except for the newbies. Anna, stick close to Alice and Punzie."

"Got it!" my sister nodded before giving a tiny squeal and bouncing on the balls of her feet. "Ahhh! I'm so excited!"

Kairi then looked to me, "As for you, you're with Merida and me. We'll keep you safe until we can track down your boy toy. Then it's all up to you to do your stuff!"

My forehead wrinkled. "My… stuff?"

"Ya know," she waggled her eyebrows at me. "Work that groove thang, girlfriend!"

...first it was feminine wiles. Now apparently I also had a "groove thang?"

I was learning so much about myself within the past twenty-four hours.

"Once you got him good and distracted and all puddy in your sweet lil hands, Merida and I will be sure to put him six feet under," Kairi smirked, squeezing one eye shut as she aimed her blaster and mimed firing it, shouting, " _Blam!_ " before blowing the imaginary smoke away from the barrel and beaming.

" _Blue combatants prepare to enter the Grid in sixty seconds,_ " a synthesized female voice announced over the sound system.

Kairi glanced up at it, then added, "Now! Real fast before the game starts, let's show you ladies how these bad boys work!"

In the scant time we had remaining, Anna and I were given a quick rundown on how to aim and reload our guns. Then we broke into smaller groups that stood ready at each of the three doors that would soon open. As my teammates started giggling and counting down the final seconds in a loud chant, I swallowed hard.

All that confidence I'd been flaunting to Lea earlier? Yeah, nothing but talk. Now that the time was finally upon us, icy anxiety began to flood my veins and my free hand came up to twist at my braid. On its own, playing laser tag for the first time was scary enough since I really had no idea what I was doing. But all this talk tossed around about feminine wiles and, er… _groove thangs?_ Wasn't helping. I wasn't sure if I could pull off what the Princesses were asking me to do.

...Rayne _had_ said me just existing around Lea would trip him up. Maybe that would be enough? Maybe-

Another siren blast startled me once again and those big metallic doors slid open. Alice let loose a blood curdling war cry that was surprisingly loud for one so small before charging off out of her door. Anna mimicked her with a bellow of her own as she and Rapunzel raced after her. "Come on!" Kairi snagged my elbow and I staggered into a run between her and Merida as we exited through our own doorway with Moana and Kida bringing up the rear.

The place was an absolute maze inside. We took so many turns that it wasn't long before I was utterly lost and couldn't have found my way back to HQ if I'd even tried. Each new section we entered looked exactly the same as the last. It was all just dim lighting and those glowing blue, red, and now orange lines. Part of me was beginning to wonder if we were just running around in circles.

I could hear muffled shouts and digital blasts echoing from beyond the walls surrounding us, coming from somewhere that sounded far away and making me wonder just how big this map really was. Regardless, each _zip_ and every _zap_ that reached my ears had me flinching and almost stumbling over my own two feet as I ran. I was getting more and more on edge with every passing second.

Alright, Elsa, deep breath. In and out. Nothing to worry about. This is easy. This is _fun_ , in fact… or so I'm told, anyway... Just relax and have a good time. It's a new experience. We like new experiences, right? New experiences are great. New experiences can be liberating. New experiences-

"Watch our backs!" Moana suddenly yelled.

I jolted and started to spin around to look back at her, "Wha-?"

She shoved me out of the way, getting us both around a corner to use for cover just as the sound of laser fire reverberated down the hallway we'd just come from. Breathing heavily, Moana gave me a firm nod and a fierce grin. "You're welcome!"

I just stared wide-eyed back at her, panting to catch my breath after all the running. Then she was ducking low and darting across to the other side of the hall, laying down cover fire as she went.

"Damn," Kairi hissed as she and the other two girls pressed their backs against the wall next to me. "How'd they get around behind us so fast?!"

"Embrace the nothingness!" someone roared from the other end of the hall before several blasts went off.

Returning fire, Moana called over to us, "Sounds like its Xemnas! He has someone else with him, but I can't quite make out-"

More rapid laser zaps cut her words off, followed by someone else snarling, "Grovel before me!"

Wait… I knew that voice… but no, there was just no _possible_ way it could actually be-

"Crap," Kairi hissed, face turning stark white. "Saïx."

I stand corrected. Apparently, it could be and in fact _was_ him.

Talk about being a completely different person! It seemed laser tag turned Saïx from Dr Jekyll into Mr Hyde.

As the gun fight grew louder around me, my heart began to pound in my ears, my knees shook, and my mouth went dry. I felt totally paralyzed and had to keep reminding myself that this was fun. Just... oodles and oodles of fun!

Oh dear, I was hyperventilating a bit…

...hyperventilating from all the _fun_ , of course!

Kida was suddenly in front of me. I think she'd sensed my anxiety, because she was gripping my shoulder tightly and giving me a warm reassuring smile. "All will be well, Elsa," she told me calmly, soothingly… right before her face twisted ferociously as she leaned around the corner and shot off her blaster several times while letting loose a banshee shriek, making me flinch. Then she pulled back to reload and look me in the eye again, face serene once more. "Be not afraid."

...right. Okay. I came, I saw, I experienced… I'm _done_. Where's the exit to this ride? I want off.

To Kairi and Merida, Kida said, "The three of you keep going, find the target! Merida and I will keep them busy here and get them off your backs. Go!"

"Roger! Let's get outta here!" Kairi snatched my wrist, pulling me along with her. Merida shot off a few final blasts down the hallway behind us to help the other Princesses before dashing after us. I took one last look back to see Kida and Moana locked in a heated laser battle with our opponents before I lost sight of them as we took a sharp turn down a new corridor.

We hadn't been running for long when a tiny, red vertical slash lit up in the upper right corner of my visor. Huh… so these things had some kind of display built into them? But what did it-

The overhead speakers let out a long, resounding _beep_ followed by that female announcer voice again, " _Red combatant derezzed._ "

"Yes! We drew first blood! Take that, Organization trash!" Kairi crowed happily.

Ah, so the display was showing me a sort of… death count? I guess? I don't even know. There was a lot going on and I was just struggling to stay sane and-

"Freeze!" a new voice abruptly shouted.

So I did.

I froze.

Because, I mean, that's what you're _supposed_ to do when someone yells that at you, right?

Apparently not. At least, not when you're playing laser tag.

"What are you- _ugh_ , get down here!" Kairi was suddenly yanking me to the ground where she and Merida had dove for cover behind a low barrier just as I heard more blaster shots going off, presumably aimed right where I had just been standing like a deer caught in the headlights. Shaking her head at me, Kairi sighed, " _Never_ fall for that. It's the oldest trick in the laser tag book. Vexen tries it every. Damn. Year."

As enemy fire abruptly died down, presumably so they could reload, Merida sprung up to her feet and released a torrent of _zaps_ from her gun, roaring, "Choke on my laser, ye gutless, lily-livered bawbags!"

"Yeah! What she said!" Kairi popped up from our hiding spot as well to blast off a barrage herself.

Not wanting to feel left out and just now remembering I _was_ in fact holding a gun that I'd all but forgotten about since the match started, I squeezed my eyes shut, lifted said gun up above the barricade and pulled the trigger, blindly firing several shots into the fray and hoping for the best.

Woo, look at me. I'm helping.

As my two teammates ducked back down to reload, Merida shouted, "Don't think I didn't see ye skulking behind that pylon, ye namby-pamby, scone-guzzling twat! Best get running with your tail tucked between those toothpicks ye call legs cuz we got ye outnumbered three to two!"

"My my, that does sound pretty grim for us, doesn't it?" a male, distinctly British voice called back. "But maybe the odds are more in our favor than you realize. By my count, _we're_ the ones who have _you_ outmanned four to three."

Merida and Kairi exchanged a look. Then Kairi scoffed, "You're bluffing!"

"Maybe… then again, maybe not… do you really want to roll the dice and risk it?"

Now Kairi lowered her voice so only we could hear her, " _Definitely_ bluffing. Merida, let's go see if we can sneak around and get the drop on 'em." She then glanced towards me. "Stay here. I'll call out when it's safe for you to follow."

I blanched. "But-"

"You'll be fine, trust me. Just stay down, keep your back to this barricade, point your gun that way," she nodded towards the corridor we'd come from, "and pull the trigger if anything so much as moves. The advantage is yours from this position. We'll make it quick, so just keep your head down and wait for my signal." And with that, the two of them slipped off into the shadows and I quickly lost sight of them.

So I did as I was told. I stayed on the ground, knees hugged to my chest as I aimed my blaster and waited. There was a slight tremor to my fingers. The sound of blood rushing in my ears made it hard to hear much else.

Gosh, this was really just… _so_ much fun.

It felt like an absolute eternity, but it was probably only seconds before I heard the fighting break out from beyond the barrier I was using for cover. Sounded like the girls had found them, as their maniacal laughter mingled with the digital blasts filling the air. Then Kairi was yelling, "We got 'em on the run! C'mon, Elsa!"

Jerking at the sound of my name, I scrambled to stand only to catch my foot on something and crash back down to the floor hard.

Ow.

Elsa, Queen of Grace and Dexterity.

Picking myself back up and dusting off the knees of my leggings, I ran towards where I'd heard her voice coming from…

...only to find no one there.

The area was completely empty except for me.

Fudge, they'd probably gone chasing after Vexen and that British guy, thinking I was right behind them. Which I _would_ have been if I hadn't tripped over my own two friggin' feet. Worst still, I had no clue where they'd gone and three different archways to choose from.

Now what, oh Nimble One?

...should I just wait here and hope they come back for me? That'd probably be the smartest call. Better than blindly picking a direction to run off in and getting myself even more lost.

Several far-off blasts from behind me made me wince.

...then again, I was standing out in the open and an easy target. Maybe it _would_ be better to just select a path, start running, and hope the next person I came across would be one of my teammates. But now, how to choose which way to go?

Eeny… meeny… miny…

More laser fire went off from behind, this time closer and making my heart leap up into my throat.

Screw it, _that_ one, just go!

I didn't even know which hallway I'd picked, I just took off and didn't look back. My feet propelled me forward, not hesitating whenever new forks in the road appeared. I'd just take a turn on impulse and keep going. A left here, a right there, and another right. Far too soon however, I was puffing for breath. I couldn't keep this pace up, I needed a break.

As I slowed to a walk, sweating and chest heaving, I held my gun up at the ready. I was jumpy as I crept along now, twitching at every distant hollar, laugh, or laser burst. Something rattled behind me and I gasped, spinning on my heel and jerking my blaster around to point at… nothing. I narrowed my eyes and kept my weapon aimed behind me as I started inching backwards, heart jackhammering and breathing shallow.

If anyone was back there, they certainly weren't going to get the jump on me! No sir! I was vigilant. My eyes were keen, like that of a hawk! No one was going to be sneaking up on me, nuh-uh, not today, not-

"Pssssst."

The sudden low noise in my ear sent a chill running up my spine, making me yelp and nearly drop my gun. My hands desperately fumbled it for a second before catching it at last and I whipped around to target-

" _Lea?!_ " I squeaked out.

Quite valiantly, I might add.

He'd already leapt back to put some space between us with his own weapon trained on the target over my heart.

So there we were. Locked in a mortal standoff. Our fated clash to the death would soon be upon us. You could all but hear the-

"You're holding your gun backwards, ya know," he said flatly, eyelids drooping.

...so I was. Heh… oopsie. I hastily corrected it, almost dropping it again before managing to direct the barrel at Lea instead of myself.

Now where was I...? Ah, that's right!

So there we were. Locked in a mortal standoff. Our fated clash to the death would soon be upon us. You could all but hear that whistling tune that plays in cowboy movies right before a pair of desperados have a shootout. Only one of us would be walking away the victor here.

...was it wrong that I was starting to relax and feel comforted by Lea's presence?

Yes. Yes it was. He was the enemy! And I had a job to do! To be fair, that job had only just been to play decoy while somebody _else_ took him out. But seeing as how I was the only one here, looks like I'd just been promoted to executioner.

But now, how to get that killing blow? It wasn't just as simple as shooting. I could see the way he was warily watching me. I knew the second I started to squeeze my trigger finger, Lea'd be dodging out of the line of fire and then it'd be curtains for me. I had to catch him off guard first, distract him somehow or-

Ah-ha! This was it! The moment we'd all been waiting for! It was my time to shine!

Alright, feminine wiles… go!

...aaaaaany time now.

Hmmm… nothing.

Alright, you're up, groove thang. Care to take a crack at it?

...I'll take your silence as a no.

Well, fudge. Now what?

...wait! Hold on… something was possibly stirring…

Yes, I think I might be feeling a feminine wile coming on!

Oh yeah. This was definitely it. Get ready, here it comes…

I clicked my tongue and winked at him.

Nailed it.

Lea blinked at me. Then he snerked and choked back a laugh, shaking his head, "What was _that?_ "

I hesitated, shifting my feet awkwardly. "...my, uh... my feminine wiles?"

Now he spluttered, struggling to keep his gun pointed at me. "El. Sugar-darlin'. Honey-boo. I adore you, you know I do. I worship the very ground you walk on and think you're smart, gorgeous, perfect and God's gift to all mankind. But babe… you wouldn't know a feminine wile if one came right up to you and bit you on the nose."

My spine snapped straight and I blushed. "I would too! I… I have feminine wiles!"

"Uh-huh, sure ya do. By the way," he pointed at a spot behind me, "what's that?"

I rolled my eyes at him, "You really expect me to fall for-"

In the blink of an eye, he'd kicked my blaster out of my hands and sent it clattering to the ground.

Huh. Guess he didn't even _need_ me to fall for it. Apparently it was enough for me to just be irked at him for thinking me so easily tricked.

Crud, he was _way_ better at this whole distraction thing than I was.

"Say goodnight, babydoll," he smirked, aiming his weapon at the target on my chest once again. I held my breath, screwed my eyes shut, twisted my face into a grimace, balled my hands at my sides and waited. Any second now, my target would vibrate and beep, announcing I'd been hit and taken out.

...only nothing was happening.

Why was nothing happening?

Slowly, I creaked one eye open. Lea was still standing there, still with his gun pointed at me… but for some reason, he hadn't pulled the trigger yet. Gone was the smug look on his face, now replaced with a tiny, sour frown. He grit his teeth angrily, his blaster wavering slightly before he lowered it and growled, "Goddamnit!" Then he ducked down and snatched my gun up off the floor, holstering it into the waistband of his pants at his hip.

I cocked my head at him. "Lea? What are you-"

That's as far as I got before he was then picking _me_ up by the waist and flopping me over his shoulder like a rag doll. With one hand maintaining a grip on my legs to keep me secure while still holding his weapon in the other, he took off running.

I grabbed at the back of his shirt to prop myself up and turned my head so I could yell at him, "Just _what_ exactly do you think you're _doing?!_ "

He didn't break stride, just kept speeding straight ahead. "What's it look like I'm doing? I'm taking you hostage!"

"But that's not how the game is played!" I snapped back, making a grab for a metal bar sticking out of one of the walls as we rushed past, my fingers latching on.

He stumbled and nearly toppled over backwards, but caught himself. "Shit! Leggo, you lil..." he pried my fingers free before taking off again. "And I can play the game however I damn well like! Deal with it!"

Huffing out a grumbling breath, I just hung my head and let myself be carried off to wherever it was that he was taking me.

Turned out to be the Organization's HQ. I mean, that was my best guess anyway by the look of it, considering how similar it was to the Princess's HQ. The only difference was there were nothing but glowing red lines decorating every surface in here instead of blue.

" _Now_ what?" I heard a voice unhappily mutter. Sounded like Larxene but I couldn't see her to verify, not with ninety percent of my vision being filled up by Lea's upside down backside and the other ten percent taken up by a lovely view of the floor.

"Whaddya mean, now what? What are you guys still doing in here?" Lea asked as he slid me off his shoulder and unceremoniously plopped me down onto one of the benches that lined the inside of the HQ's walls. I started to stand back up, but Lea narrowed his eyes at me and held a finger up in front of my face, "Ah-Ah!"

I sighed through my nose but stayed put, crossing my arms and slouching down into my seat.

Now that I could see the rest of the room better, I was able to confirm that it was indeed Larxene who'd spoken, with Marluxia in here as well. Larxene quirked an eyebrow at me but apparently decided not to comment just yet, instead opting to answer Lea's question. "We're trying to drag this dumb loser off his lazy ass and get him out into the fight," she ground out through her teeth, pointing at-

Oh! Apparently Demyx was in here too! Almost didn't spot him cowering behind that column over there.

Lea groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Crap, this again? He does this every damn year! We _seriously_ need to stop recruiting him!"

"That's what _I_ keep saying!" Demyx piped up. Or rather, his voice did. The guy himself remained in hiding.

"Dude. Why do you bother signing up every year if you don't even wanna play?" Lea shook his head.

"Because Larxene always threatens to taze me until my nose lights up brighter than Rudolph's if I don't," he whimpered, just barely poking his head out now. Then he seemed to spot me for the first time. "Oh! Hey Elsa!" he waved cheerily.

"Hi Demyx," I mumbled, returning a halfhearted wave myself.

Larxene slammed the sole of her boot against the column, making him squeak and hide again. She snarled, "This fuckwit's _actually_ a halfway decent player whenever we finally manage to chase the damn baby out of his hidey-hole and-"

"Lea! There you are!" Roxas suddenly came barreling in through one of the doors, his sneakers skidding to a stop as he doubled over, wheezing for breath. "We've been looking everywhere for you!"

Xion was hot on his heels, stumbling to a halt beside him and huffing, "You shouldn't have run off on your own like that! Why'd you come back- oh, hey there, Elsa!" she blinked at me in surprise, tilting her head slightly. "What are you doing here?"

Marluxia settled his cool gaze on me, "Yes… why indeed?"

Larxene pulled a face and spat, "Ugh, Firecracker! _Please_ tell me you didn't sneak back here so you could make out with your little girlfriend! You seriously need to stop thinking below the belt all the time!"

"Agreed," Marluxia nodded with a frown. "You should learn to show some decorum. Xemnas will be most displeased when he finds out you were squandering precious game time to nurture your budding romance."

Shaking his head and rapidly waving his hands back and forth in front of him, Lea said, "Guys, guys, it's not- _Ah!_ " he exclaimed the last syllable in warning to me as I tried to get up again to tiptoe off. Placing a hand on my shoulder and pushing me back down firmly into my seat, he addressed the others again, "It's not like that! I just-"

"We don't have time for this!" Xion cut in. "Why is half our team just chilling back here at the base? Get all your butts out there before everyone else gets slaughtered!"

Lea batted his hand through the air, "It's fine, Xigbar's out there! That psycho could take out the whole other team solo with one hand tied behind his back!"

As if on cue, two blue slashes suddenly lit up in the upper left corner of my visor opposite of the red one from earlier. Overhead, that synthesized female voice announced, " _Blue combatant derezzed_ ," twice, one for each mark.

"See?" Lea pointed up towards the speakers triumphantly.

"Wait…" Roxas's brow furrowed. "...those were the first two kills our team's gotten… meaning…" he was eyeing me now.

"Son of a… she's not _dead_ yet?! Firecracker, you dumbass!" Larxene hissed, whipping her blaster up and aiming it at me.

Lea was quick to jump between her and me, his hands shooting up in a placating gesture, "Woah now, easy there!"

Not lowering her weapon, she yelled, "The hell do you think you're doing, bringing her back here alive?! Just shoot her already!"

"C'mon, give her a break, it's her first time playing!" Lea argued back. "I just wanna make sure she has a good time! She can't do that if she gets eliminated right out the damn gate."

Larxene made a noise of disgust in her throat. "You are _seriously_ whipped, numbnuts. What'd she do to get you to fold like a wet paper towel, just bat her lashes and pout and go," she poked a finger into her cheek and mockingly cooed, "pwease don't shoot me, I'm just a poor, defenseless widdle girl!"

My shoulders tensed and I snapped, "I most certainly did _not-_ "

"Butt out, Princess! This is Organization business," Larxene growled.

Roxas sniggered as he flumped down beside me on the bench, "Ignore her, she's just cranky."

"Yeah, we lurve you," Xion sat down on my other side, beaming and making a heart with her hands.

Lea was rubbing the back of his head with his gun. "Look, I just wanted her to have fun, is that so wrong?"

A scoff erupted from Larxene. "Yeah, sure, cuz getting taken hostage is _so_ much fun!"

"More fun than being dead in the first five minutes!"

She was glaring down at his hip now, something having caught her eye there apparently. "Wait a minute, is that…? For fuck's sake, you brought her _gun_ too, bonehead?! The hell is the _matter_ with you, are you _trying_ to get us all shot?!"

Rolling his eyes, Lea brushed it off, "Relax, I won't let her get her hands back on it. I just didn't want it to get lost or totally busted and for them to charge her with some bullshit replacement fee for the thing. And trust me: me taking her hostage is a good thing."

Larxene fixed him with a dull stare. "...I think your brain is what's lost or totally busted."

"No, hear me out!" He tossed a hand in my direction, "El is valuable to the Princesses and they know she hasn't been eliminated yet. Once they realize we got her prisoner, they're gonna make stupid moves trying to get her back. They'll be easy pickings!"

"It would seem to me that _you're_ the one making stupid moves," Marluxia deadpanned.

Lea snapped his fingers and tapped his nose, "Exactly! That's why the Princesses'll want her back! To make sure she stays in the game and messing with my head! But if _we_ keep her here and alive, then _I'm_ less likely to screw up while the Princesses keep tripping all over themselves trynta to rescue her! It's a win-win!"

The silence stretched for a bit. Then Larxene sidestepped so she could point her blaster at me again, "I'm just gonna shoot her."

As Lea moved to block her again, Marluxia placed a hand on her weapon and gently pushed it down. "No, let's hold off. His plan, ridiculous as it may be, holds some merit. Let's see how it plays out."

Larxene wrinkled her nose and gaped. "You have _got_ to be _shitting_ me." However, Marluxia's stern look brooked no argument. Curling her lip with a _tch_ , she grumbled, "Fine, whatever. But you!" She marched up to Lea, stabbing her finger into his chest several times, "This is _your_ dumb idea, so _your_ stupid ass gets to be the one to watch her!"

"Lea has _so_ just earned himself a date with Larxene's taser after the match," Xion whispered with a giggle.

Roxas snerked under his breath as he looked to me, "Hope you like your boyfriends with enough electricity coursing through 'em to power a small toaster oven."

"What are you two twerps snickering about?!" Larxene turned her wrath on the pair of them now and they both yelped. "Get off your asses, get out there and bring me those Princesses' heads on pikes or don't come back all!" They leapt up to their feet and bolted out of there as if their lives depended on it. Which, let's face it… they very well might've.

Now Larxene's dark scowl zeroed in on the column that Demyx was using for cover as she snarled, "And you!" A terrified squeak could be heard from beyond the pillar. Muttering a long string of curse words, Larxene stomped over and disappeared behind it as well. Then there was a high-pitched scream before Demyx tore out of the base like a bat out of hell. Re-emerging and dusting her hands together, Larxene smirked with a satisfied sigh, "I do so love being part of a team. The feeling of encouraging and uplifting my fellow players can be _so_ rewarding."

Retrieving her blaster from where she'd tucked it into the top of her pants, she glanced to Marluxia and jerked her chin towards one of the doorways. "Now let's go snuff out some Princesses!" However, as she was moving past Lea, she stopped to narrow her eyes at him. "...swear to god, Firecracker, if we lose because of your bullshit here, I'll-"

"Yeah, yeah, _my_ head will be the one on a pike, I get it! Will ya just beat it already?" Lea lazily shooed her away with his gun.

She glowered but said nothing more, simply stepped outside the door and waited for Marluxia. As for Marluxia himself, he walked over to Lea and fixed him with a hard stare. "I trust when the proper time comes, you won't hesitate to pull the trigger," he told him, shooting a meaningful look my way out of the corner of his eye.

"Not for a heartbeat," Lea waved a dismissive hand. Marluxia squinted at him. "What, I won't! I hate losing just as much as you do, Mr Bubble Yum!"

If Marluxia felt reassured, he didn't show it. Regardless, he faced me now. "No hard feelings, of course. See you at rehearsal tomorrow."

"...looking forward to it," I muttered back as he slipped out the doorway to join Larxene, the two of them stealthily sprinting off.

Now that it was just down to the two of us, Lea glanced towards me with a tiny frown. Then he looked away and readied his weapon, poising it in front of him. He began patrolling from one HQ door to the next, keeping an eye out for any foolhardy, would-be rescuers.

The minutes slowly ticked by. Save for the occasional announcement whenever another player had been derezzed, the silence was absolute. Were this any other time, Lea would probably be cuddling up close to me and delightedly chatting my ear off. But not now. Not while there was a laser tag game to be won. Apparently, laser tag was _very_ serious business. At least, if his expression and posture as he stood guard right now were any indicators, that is.

After a time, I released a low sigh. If anyone _was_ trying to come save me, they were certainly taking their sweet time about it. I felt restless. My muscles were stiff from sitting still for so long. So, I gave a small stretch and began to rise to my feet.

In a flash, Lea had his gun's crosshairs centered on me. "Hey, hey, _hey!_ Plop that cute lil butt of yours back down, Missy!" he ordered, gesturing the barrel of his blaster down towards where I'd been seated.

I hitched my chin. "The bench is hard and uncomfortable. Just let me stand and stretch my legs for a min-" I took a step forward and I winced, a soft hiss escaping me. "Ah, my ankle!"

He blinked, then his eyelids drooped. "Please, that lame ol' trick? Nice try, but I wasn't born yesterday."

"It's not a trick, I think I'm really hurt!" I huffed. Then setting my lips into a grim line, I gingerly tested putting some weight on it. "...you must have smacked it against something while you were manhandling me earlier and- _ow!_ " My ankle gave out and I stumbled forward.

Lea instinctively moved to catch me, his arms wrapping around my waist while mine latched around his neck for support. But then his eyes were immediately suspicious and his empty hand clasped protectively over where he had my weapon holstered.

I rolled my eyes at him with a scoff. "You actually think I would go to _this_ much trouble if I were only faking it? All just to get my stupid gun back? Seriously?"

He continued watching me skeptically, his hand remaining steadfast over my blaster. "...maybe, maybe not. Jury's still out."

"Damn it, Lea, this really hurts!" I snapped at him.

I felt his muscles relax somewhat as he puffed out a breath, bringing his free hand up to ruffle at his hair now. "Then why ya standing on it, dummy? Go on, sit back down."

"No," I turned my head to one side with a tiny _hmph_. "I told you already, that bench is uncomfortable."

"Whaddya expect, it's a _bench_. You'll live," he laughed incredulously. Then he was carefully shifting me around, mindful of my ankle as he took a seat himself to demonstrate. "See? Perfectly fine. Now c'mon El, please, if you would just-"

I finally sat back down.

Right on his lap.

I felt him tense beneath me. Then he was shaking his head with a chuckle as he brought up his hand to tweak my nose, "Cheeky."

Slipping my arms back around his neck once more, I drew in a deep breath before giving a pleased little exhale. "Ah, much more comfy."

"I would hope so," one corner of his lips twitched up. Then he was setting his gun down on the bench beside him and readjusting me in his lap a bit so he could more easily reach down, gently feeling my ankle. I flinched, sucking in a little breath. His eyebrows knit together, "Sorry… hm, doesn't seem to be any swelling, so probably isn't sprained or fractured. Guessing it just got banged pretty good. Probably only gonna leave a nasty bruise."

My eyes crinkled as I watched him. "...it's sweet."

"What's that?" he asked absently, still cautiously inspecting my ankle.

"The way you always take care of me." I leaned in closer to murmur into his ear, "It's sweet."

Lea stiffened, then cleared his throat as he straightened back up in his seat and laughed sheepishly. "What can I say? Gotta make sure my lady's taken care of!"

I gave him a warm smile before resting my head on his shoulder, my arms hugging more tightly around him as I sighed against his neck with a soft, "Hmmm."

He shivered and echoed a low, "Hm?"

"Nothing really." My fingers began to lightly toy with the hairs at the nape of his neck as my lips brushed along the side of his throat. "Just trying to think of how I might show you my gratitude later."

"...well, I might have a… few suggestions…" There was a gruffness to his voice now as I felt his thumb idly stroking along the curve of my hip.

"Mm, I'd love to hear them," I hummed a quiet laugh as I trailed my hand down his chest, avoiding the target strapped to it as I went. Then I lifted my head once more to meet his gaze while using my other hand to press a fingertip to his lips, silencing him before he could answer me. "But first… told ya."

His eyes hooded as he playfully nipped at my finger before ducking his head down to press kisses to my jawline as he whispered, "Told me what?"

"That I have feminine wiles."

His whole body went rigid. " _Motherfu-_ "

Too late. I already had my gun back, barrel directly up against the target over his heart. I pulled the trigger and-

" _Red combatant derezzed._ "

"Ha!" I dropped the blaster and shot up to my feet, hopping up and down in triumph on my fine, healthy, and one hundred percent pain-free ankles. Lea groaned and slumped down in his seat, thumping the back of his head against the wall a few times. His moping only made victory taste all the more sweet. Giggling, I lightly clapped my hands a few times before holding my palms together, pressing my fingertips to my huge grin.

My tiny victory party of one was interrupted however as someone else suddenly came charging inside the base. I turned and gasped as their feet came to a screeching stop, revealing the person to be none other than that weirdo with the eyepatch.

He took one look at me, both eyebrows shooting up his forehead. "What the…?" Then with a bemused smirk, he aimed his weapon at me, "Oh-ho no, not on my watch. As if!" He fired and, well… as you could probably guess…

" _Blue combatant derezzed._ "

With a self-satisfied snerk, Eyepatch twirled his gun and took off running once more, disappearing out the door opposite the one he'd come in through.

...well then.

My stint as a legendary, professional laser tag assassin supreme may have been brief, but it had been undeniably glorious.

"That was a cheap, dirty underhanded trick ya pulled," Lea said, pulling my attention back to him as he stood up and removed his helmet, shaking out his crimson spikes. Then his lips stretched into a crooked smile, "One I _completely_ saw through, by the way."

I arched an eyebrow at him, biting back a small grin. "Oh really?"

Tucking his helmet under his arm, he then reached out to undo mine as well. "Mm-hm! You were as transparent as a soap bubble."

"If I was being so obvious, why'd you play along then?" I challenged, crossing my arms.

"Rather, the question you _should_ be asking is... why _wouldn't_ I play along?" He ruffled my bangs before offering me my helmet with a wink. "Never have I more thoroughly enjoyed being proven so totally wrong."

I felt heat creeping up the back of my neck as I took it from him, averting my gaze with a dignified sniff. "I don't believe you. I don't think you saw through it at all."

He snorted, scratching a finger behind his ear. "Alright, ya got me. Can't blame a guy for trynta salvage what lil dignity he has left! But damn, El, you've been holding out on me. Where've you been hiding those lil moves of yours this whole time?"

Rocking on my heels a bit, I mulled over it for a second. Honestly, I'd even surprised myself a bit there. Only reason I hadn't been blushing furiously the whole time was because I wasn't _really_ here to fraternize - it'd just been a means to an end. I'd had a job to do. Finally, I gave a tiny shrug, "Suppose I just needed the right incentive."

"That incentive being making me eat crow on this most holy of battlefields that is laser tag."

I smiled brightly. "Bingo."

He crinkled his eyes at me, then sighed and dragged a hand across the nape of his neck. "Shit, the rest of the team is gonna be out for my blood when they find out 'bout this. We're talking torches, pitchforks, the whole nine damn yards." However, he was next flashing me that dimple of his as he retrieved both our weapons, holding them together in one hand. "Still, was definitely worth it for this lil revelation. I'm telling ya, never woulda thought you had it in you, _especially_ not while we were entertaining an audience no less."

"An audience?" I repeated, frowning. Then I slowly shook my head, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Did you forget?" A half grin tugged at his lips as he pointed up at a corner of the ceiling where one of the arena's cameras could be spotted. "Big Brother's watching."

Just about every last drop of blood drained out of my face.

Fudge, the _cameras!_ All over this damn arena! Feeding a live stream of events as they unfolded here back to anyone watching in the store front! And there had been a _lot_ of people there, meaning…

...every single one of them had just had a front row seat for watching me seduce my boyfriend.

Bolting behind Lea to hide from the camera, my arms clutched around his waist as I buried my now roasting face into his back.

Oh, what I wouldn't give for the cold, sweet embrace of death right about now.

Laughing softly, Lea patted his hand over mine, weaving our fingers together but not removing it from where I still had it clasped against his stomach. "C'mon, we're not s'posed to linger this long after getting KO'd. Let's find a way out. Your adoring fans await."

Remaining firmly latched onto him from behind, I staggered as he began to lead us towards the nearest exit. "I don't think I can face any of them ever again," I muffled into his back. "I am never going to live this down."

"Well, we can hole up in one of the equipment rooms between matches, but that'll only buy you a lil time. Sooner or later they'll hafta kick us out when this place closes up for the night." As he pushed open a door beneath a glowing green EXIT sign, he glanced back at me over his shoulder with a smirk. "But you got bigger problems to worry 'bout now, boo."

I glanced back up at him, gnawing on my bottom lip. "...what do you mean?"

"Now that I know you've got feminine wiles, I'm gonna expect you to start using 'em more."

* * *

_**Author's Notes:** _ _It's the face-off of the century, the battle you've all been waiting for… Organization XIII vs The Princesses of Hearts! Gosh, now I want fanart of all of them decked out in laser tag gear and glaring each other down! Could look hella badass! Anyhoo, I think this chapter might have been even more jam-packed with references than that 7th Heaven chapter xD I went with OG Org as you can tell cuz, one, they're my fave incarnation of the Org, and two, let's face it… old man Xehanort would probably break a hip playing laser tag xD And of course, all the official Princesses of Hearts made an appearance, plus a few extras, any of which would get my vote for being one of the mystery New 7 Hearts that were never revealed in KH3! Minor fun fact: If you didn't recognize them, Xemnas's and Saïx's lines were direct battle quotes from the video games. I would've liked to have done the same for Vexen, but I couldn't figure out how to make any of his battle quotes fit, so I took the lame, cheesy way out by just having him shout "Freeze!" xD As for which team won this first match… Princesses finally managed to break the Organization's winning streak, woo! Yeah, Lea barely survived the wrath of his fellow teammates after their crushing defeat xD I was originally trying to figure out a way to fit this laser tag chapter into the main story, but decided in the end it would be more fun if Lea and Elsa were already a couple for it - certainly had more fun with the chapter's ending that way at least ;D_

_Thank you so much for reading, especially to those of you who have left a kudos and shared with me your thoughts and feelings on this story so far! Remember, feedback is not only welcome, but highly encouraged and super appreciated!_

_See ya next week for the next bonus chapter, which will have a lil more substance than this one xD Your clue phrase this time is... hair dye. What could that possibly have to do with next chapter?! Stay tuned and find out!_


	32. Chapter 32

"Pssst. Raindrop. Check it out."

I paid little mind to the new conversation apparently taking form in the kitchen behind me.

"Hm…? What is it? What am I looking at here?" A pause, then a tiny gasp. "...is… is that what I think it is?"

I just kept scrolling through my phone from my seat on the couch, only listening with half an ear.

"Mm-hm! Her first one! Ain't it a beaut?"

Riku was currently out for what was looking to be a particularly long day at work for him and seeing as how we both had the day off ourselves, Lea and I had decided to hang out at my apartment and keep Rayne company. We'd settled on watching a movie, but my roommate had paused it to go get herself a drink. A few seconds later, Lea had gotten up as well, claiming to be a bit parched himself.

"Oh my _god_ , it's so cute and little!"

We'd even brought Marshmallow with us for a visit with his auntie, especially considering Saïx would have flayed us alive if we'd stuck him with dog-sitting duty yet again. My fingers absently scritched behind one of his ears as the little pup contentedly rested his head in my lap. Though my use of "little" was strictly in the loosest sense of the term. Having had him for close to two months at this point, he'd grown quite a bit. He still looked like a puppy, mind you… there was just a _lot_ more puppy to love now.

"I know, right? So precious, so smol. Just a wee baby hickey!"

My head jerked up at the last word, eyes wide. Then I hastily twisted around in my seat. The scene that greeted me in the kitchen was that of Lea with one finger hooked into his tee-shirt collar and tugging it down to show Rayne a tiny patch of discoloration on his skin just below and slightly to the right of his collarbone.

" _Lea!_ " I snapped, face reddening while my hand gripped the backrest of the sofa so hard, my knuckles turned white.

They both looked at me and froze, Lea muttering, "Uh-oh."

Dropping my phone onto the cushions, I was on my feet in a heartbeat and charging towards them, "That was supposed to be _private!_ "

"Now now, El," he soothed as he quickly moved to put the kitchen table between me and him, "how was I s'posed to know that? You never said anything about-"

"It was _implied_ , you… you… ugh, come here!" I snarled, running around the table with Marshmallow hot on my heels, barking excitedly. Rayne just sniggered as she sidestepped out of our way.

Lea was easily able to keep ahead of me, maintaining the table as a barrier between us. "Aw, c'mon, babydoll! This was a big step for you! I was just proud of you and wanted others to share in my joy!"

"No!" I slapped one palm down on the dining surface while angrily pointing a finger at him across it. "No others! You can't tell anyone else, you hear me?!"

"Alright, alright, I won't tell any other people, I swear!" he raised both hands in a placating gesture. Then he pursed his lips to one side as his gaze averted. "Well… any _more_ other people…"

I blanched. "...who? Who else did you already tell? Roxas? _Xion?_ "

He scoffed, splaying his hand against his chest in offence. "Please, just what kinda man do you take me for? I'm a _gentleman_ , I don't do any of that locker-room talk bullshit." He crossed his arms over his chest, harrumphing as if the very notion was an insult to everything he stood for. Then he gave a small shrug, "...I just told Anna."

I choked and spluttered, unable to find words for a few seconds. "My… You told my _sister?!_ " I took off after him once more, but curse him and his freakishly long legs, the jerk was able to move fast enough to keep the table between us. Marshmallow kept prancing about down around our feet, just out of his mind and beside himself from the sudden burst of activity. Stopping once more, my hands seized the backrest of the nearest dining chair and squeezed the life out of it as I growled, "Why? Why on _earth_ would you tell my _sister?_ "

"Lookit it this way. See, it's like… baby taking her first steps, ya know? I just want all of baby's family and loved ones to feel included in these special lil milestones! Baby being you, of course!"

Oh, "baby" was _so_ going to murder this boy.

"And may I just take this moment to add," oh dear lord, he did _not_ know when to stop talking, even if his very life depended on it, "what a privilege, nay, _honor_ it has been to have a front row seat to - not to mention be _instrumental_ in - your sexual awakening these past several weeks and-"

I threw a coaster at him.

"Hey now, watch it, those are fragile!" Rayne chided as she scooped the other ones off the table to tuck away safely in a cupboard before taking out a different stack to hand to me. "Use these instead. They're garbage, but hard as rocks!"

"Don't give her _more_ ammo!" Lea yelped and ducked as I rapidly chucked my freshly stocked supply of munitions at him. Once I was out, I made another dash for him. Once again, he tried to bolt. This time however, he tripped and stumbled over Marshmallow with a tiny, "Shit!" He managed to grab the edge of the table and catch himself but he'd already lost his lead, giving me a chance to close the distance. Right before I could deliver my righteous justice however, he scooped up Marshmallow and was suddenly holding the giant, squirming ball of white fluff up between us, desperately asking, "You wouldn't hit a guy holding a stupidly cute puppy, would you?"

Huffing through my nose, I narrowed my eyes on him. "Put the dog down, Lea," I said, my voice dangerously low and even.

"Seeing as how the lil furball is the only thing between me and an untimely date with my maker, I'm gonna hafta give ya a hard pass there," he chuckled weakly, inching back a step. Then he was calling over his shoulder, "Lil help, Raindrop?"

She just grinned and shook her head from where she'd taken a seat at the dining table. "Mm-mm, nope. You're on your own, Red."

"Dude. Harsh. I thought we were frien- _ow!_ " he hissed as I took advantage of his distraction to pinch his arm. Marshmallow came in for the assist, chomping down on Lea's fingers and forcing a yelp out of him as he dropped the puppy. Giving his abused hand a shake, he scowled down at the culprit. "Et tu, Marshmallow?"

In response, he just wagged his poof of a tail and sunk his teeth into Lea's leg.

"Destroyer of Worlds, my ass. More like Destroyer of My Ankles, you lil-" Lea's grumbling died down instantly as he saw me take a menacing step towards him. Gulping, he took several steps backwards, snatching up one of the kitchen chairs to use for a makeshift shield. As I kept stalking towards him, he continued backing up until his rear hit a countertop. Sitting atop it and scooching back even further until his spine was against the wall, he stretched one foot out to press against my stomach, holding me at bay with it while he shoved the chair legs in my directions a couple times, "Back! Back I say!"

I froze, blinking at him a couple times. "...are you seriously _lion-taming_ me right now?"

He frowned, eyes darting down to the chair he was holding, then back up to meet my gaze. "Depends. Is it turning you on, my sexy lioness?"

My eyelids drooped. "Not even a little bit."

"Then nope! No, mm-mm, definitely _not_ what I am doing." Something suddenly started ringing back from the direction of the living room. Lea straightened up, eyes brightening, "Oo! Oo! That's your phone, isn't it? Better go answer it!"

"It can go to voicemail," I ground out through my teeth, shoving his foot off my abdomen and taking another step closer.

Still frantically using the chair to defend himself, he asked, "You sure 'bout that? Could be important!"

"It can wait."

"I'll get it!" Rayne chirped, rising and moving to the couch where I'd left my phone. Picking it up, her thumb swiped the screen and she held it up to her ear, cheerfully greeting, "Elsa's pants, she's not in them right now!"

" _Rayne!_ " I whipped my head around to glare at her. She simply winked and blew me a kiss. Sighing, I muttered, "You're just lucky you're pregnant, otherwise you'd be next up on my kill list."

"Hey, double standards!" Lea huffed. "No fair, _I_ can't get pregnant!"

Palm covering the lower half of the phone so it wouldn't pick up her voice, Rayne whispered, "Maybe you're just not doing it right."

"Huh… I'm game to give it a whirl." He smirked at me, "Go on, El. Put a baby in me."

My answer came in the form of grabbing two of the chair legs and giving them a hard shove, ramming the edge of the backrest into Lea's gut.

He grunted and wheezed, "Don't think that's how that's done, babe."

Before I could make a retort, Rayne was abruptly holding my phone in front of my face. "It's Larxene."

My head rocked back slightly, my anger dispersing in an instant as my eyes darted from the mobile, then to my roomie, then back again. Why was the assistant director calling me? Brow furrowed, I finally took it from her and held it up to my ear with an uncertain, "...hello?"

" _Get your ass down here. Now._ "

"I… o-of course! But-"

_Click._

She'd hung up.

Both eyebrows shot up my forehead as I slowly lowered the phone, staring at my reflection in the now blackened screen.

"What's up, El?" Lea asked, voice immediately colored in concern as he dropped the chair and slid off the counter onto his feet.

I shook my head. "...guess I better get my ass down there."

Leaving Marshmallow in Rayne's care, Lea and I were on the road within minutes and heading towards Sunset Hill Auditorium. That was my best guess anyway as to wherever it was that Larxene wanted me to get my ass down to. I tucked in my bottom lip as I watched the buildings rush past, my fingers fidgeting with my braid.

Why was I being called in?

The not knowing had me on edge.

Our grand opening of _Wicked_ had occurred last weekend. As was to be expected, I'd been so nervous I'd practically choked on all those butterflies jam-packed inside my stomach trying to escape. But it'd been a good nervous. An excited nervous. And in the end, it'd been so much fun and the show had gone off without a hitch.

Or at least, so I'd thought…

Maybe that's why Larxene was summoning me. Maybe I'd screwed up big time in my role without even realizing it. And I was part of the chorus no less - just one of many, so it would've had to have been one _major_ flub on my part for her to take notice and zero in on me. We were back around to Friday now, so tonight was supposed to be our next showing, followed by several more weekends to come before the musical closed out. But maybe… if I _had_ royally flopped super hard last week...

...oh god… was she going to kick me out of the show?

I gave a start as Lea's hand suddenly closed around mine, lacing our fingers together and stopping me from getting _this_ close to tearing my hair out. He pulled it over to rest in his lap, brushing his thumb back and forth along my knuckles as he continued to drive one handed. "You're sure she didn't say anything else? _Anything_ at all?"

Grimacing, I shook my head. "Nothing. Just told me to come and to be quick about it." I puffed out a sigh, staring down at my lap. "...I doubt it's anything good though. She sounded mad."

He gave an unimpressed razz of his tongue. "That hag always sounds like someone's spit in her Cheerios, so that's not saying much."

That earned him a feeble smile from me, one that swiftly faded. "...what if…" I began, but then clamped my mouth shut against the words, my frown deepening. "...there's this one scene… you remember, from when you saw it last weekend? The bit with the party, where Elphaba is pranked into wearing the witch hat? There's one part of that whole dance routine where we - the chorus that is… we're supposed to twirl to and fro, and maybe… what if I _to'd_ when I should have _fro'd_ and that's why she's calling me in? I to'd when I should've fro'd and wrecked the whole scene and now she's cutting me and making sure I can never, _ever_ work in theater again and-"

"Nonsense, El," he chuckled, shaking his head as he pulled up my hand to kiss the back of it. "Your to-ing and fro-ing were perfect last week. Perfecter than perfect. Those to's and fro's were so perfect that everyone in the audience was too busy being enchanted by you to even pay any attention to the leads and whatever the hell they were doing. In fact, do you wanna know who was sitting in the very seat next to me during that showing?"

My eyelids drooped at how thick this dork was laying it on. "No, but I get the feeling you're about to tell me," I deadpanned.

He grinned big as he turned the car into a parking spot in front of the auditorium and killed the engine. "Why, it was none other than the Grand High King To-And-Fro Champion of the Universe himself! And he was so stunned, so amazed, so _enthralled_ by your hella sick to-ing and fro-ing skills that I overheard him say," here his voice deepened theatrically, "at long last! I've found a worthy successor to bequeath my bedazzling, golden To-And-Fro Crown to!"

I scoffed, using climbing out of the car as an excuse to hide my small, traitorous smile. "Wow, there's a To-And-Fro Crown?"

"You bet your sweet booty there is!" he chirped as he exited the vehicle himself, slamming the door shut behind him.

An amused little huff escaped my nose as I joined him, slipping my hand back into his before making my way towards the entrance to the building. Then I was shooting him some suspicious side-eye. "...you're planning to make me a crown now, aren't you?"

"I dunno what you're talking about," he said a touch too innocently as we climbed the steps and walked inside.

I shot him a dull look. "Do _not_ make me a crown."

"Oh-ho, you're getting a crown whether you like it or not, babycakes."

A soft snort escaped me as I pulled to a stop alongside the back row of audience seats. Then the chilly anxiety began to creep its way back inside my chest. Wrinkling my nose, I muttered, "It'd probably be best if I didn't take you in back with me, so just… wait here, I suppose. This should only take a few minutes… I hope."

Instead of releasing my hand as I turned to go however, his grip gently tightened as he said, "Wait, you forgot this."

"Wha-?" was all I managed to get out before he was tugging me back to him, cupping my cheek and pressing his lips to mine. For a moment, all thoughts of dread were forgotten, washed away by the waves of icy heat sent cascading throughout my body.

As he pulled away, he pressed his forehead to mine and trailed the pad of his thumb along the curve of my cheekbone, murmuring, "Whatever her High-And-Mighty Bitchiness wants, ya give her hell, you hear me?"

Face a little warm, I gave him a tiny smile and a single hesitant nod. Then I squeezed his hand before disentangling our fingers and heading towards the door that led to the backstage area.

The rooms back here were a ghost town currently. I knew however that in only a few short hours the place would be pure chaos with actors and techies alike rushing about in preparation for tonight's show. I frowned, fidgeting with my fingers as I slowly wandered from room to empty room, curious as to where exactly the fearsome assistant director might be hiding. Just when I was thinking about texting her to be sure this actually was in fact where she'd wanted me to come, I heard muffled voices. I glanced around for a second before making my way towards the dressing room as that seemed to be where they were coming from.

Poking my head through the doorway, I spotted three older women who I knew helped Sally with all the costuming for the shows here. They had a few of the costumes for the musical in hand, waving them about as they talked amongst themselves somewhat frantically. All their words were jumbling together into such a muddle of indecipherable noise, it was a wonder any of them were able to keep up with their own conversation.

Taking in a deep breath to settle my nerves before exhaling, I approached them with a polite, "Hi Flora, Fauna, Merryweather... Would any of you possibly know where Lar-"

"Ah! There you are, dear, and not a moment too soon!" The one in a red knit sweater, Flora, cried as she and the others whirled around to face me. "Come, come, there's too much to do and not enough time to do it all in! So many adjustments to make!"

And then I yelped as the three of them pounced.

Okay, maybe "pounced" was a tad strong. But they came at me brandishing tape measures in their hands and safety pins gripped between their teeth and if I'm being perfectly honest, it was a little distressing to say the least.

"Adjustments? What adj- hey, that tickles!" I squirmed as Flora, the one wearing the green hat, stretched out my arm to measure from wrist to armpit. "Adjustments to what?"

Flora smiled sweetly back at me as she wrapped the tape around my bicep now, "To the costumes, of course dear! What else?"

Well duh, I'd figured that much out! But _which-_

Oh! Hold on… could it be that…

"...was there an accident with one of my outfits? Did something rip and you just need to fix it?" Was _that_ why I'd been called down here? Because if that's all it was, thank goodness!

The lady sporting a blue scarf, Merryweather, ignored my question as she straightened back up with a scowl after taking my height measurement. "Aww, phooey! You're shorter by five inches! Now we have to take up all the hemlines!"

My eyebrows knit together, "Wha… hemlines? What are you… shorter than what? Just what is going-"

" _There_ you are!" A new voice exasperatedly joined the conversation from behind us and I turned to see Larxene striding into the room bearing a clipboard. Or rather, I _tried_ to turn, only to have Flora flip me back around so she could resume measuring my shoulders. "Finally! You certainly took your sweet damn time!"

Wincing slightly, I began, "I… I got here as fast as I could, I-"

She sighed boredly, "Save it, I don't give a crap." Coming to a stop next to me, she eyed her clipboard as she flipped through a couple of the pages. "I got ahold of the others and they should be here any minute for our dry run. As long as no one fucks anything up, that should leave enough time to finish making sure all your costumes fit, your hair is done, and-"

"My hair? What are you doing with my... Wait, why wouldn't my- stop that," I hissed, shooing Fauna away from getting that tape cord anywhere near my bust before looking at Larxene again. "Why wouldn't my costumes fit? And dry run? What dry run? I didn't know about any more rehearsals being scheduled before the show today."

The assistant director gave me a flat look. "...Marluxia didn't tell you?" When my answer was only a blank stare, she growled in her throat, closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Of course he didn't. Why _would_ he? He's only the damn director, _ugh!_ Leave it to Pinkie to delegate without even bothering to tell me!" Cyan eyes locked on me once more and voice taking on what had to be the most unenthused tone in the entire history of all tones, she informed me, "Congratulations. You're Elphaba."

Sorry, I'm who now?

I blinked. Once, then twice. Then, "I'm…? Elph- Wha? Me? No, that can't- That's not- It doesn't- It's not- There's just- It couldn't- No, no, no, there must be-"

Gosh, I've always had such a way with words.

Pressing my lips together firmly and taking a second to gather my thoughts, I tried again. "Snow White-"

" _Snow White_ has _food poisoning_ and can't go on," Larxene enunciated as if she were explaining to a four-year-old child. "So Pinkie has shoulder-tapped you to step up and fill in. Mazel-fucking-tov, now can we move past this already?"

I frowned, barely even noticing now as the flurry of poking, prodding and measuring continued about my person. "But what about… I mean _surely_ there must be a… an understudy! Or-"

She barked out a laugh. "An understudy? Princess please, this is _community_ theater, _what_ understudy?"

My gaze fell to the floor, a crease forming between my eyebrows. Then I was looking at her again, "But this just doesn't make any sense, there has to be someone else! Someone with… with more _experience!_ Why not Tiana or-"

"Tiana's busy," Larxene rolled her eyes.

I shook my head, "Doing what?"

"Um, playing Glinda? Doi?" she arched an eyebrow at me, then scoffed. "We're not going to play musical goddamn chairs with all the leads just a few hours before the show starts. That'd be a royal shitshow, genius. So why don't I just leave all the prancy-wancy acting… _stuff_ to you while you leave the assistant directing to me, _okay_?" That last word was dripping with enough sarcasm to fill a whole friggin' bucket.

"Then…" I bit down on my bottom lip, breathing shallow and mind racing, desperate to come up with any other solution. "...then one of the other girls! From the tryouts who aren't in the show! Like, oh, what was her name… Yuna?"

Larxene watched me blankly. Then she was tucking her clipboard into her armpit so she could clap her hands together once and coo in candy-coated sweetness, "Okay, yeah! Let's bring in someone who hasn't been to _any_ rehearsals and doesn't know _any_ of the stage layout or _any_ of the choreography! It's _perfect!_ Gee, why didn't I think of that?"

The mockery was neither appreciated nor lost on me.

"Fine! What about- I said _stop!_ " Fauna had been making another shot for my bust and I stumbled out of that tangled mess of hands and measuring tape, huffing and puffing through my nose as I glanced back at them, "What are you even _doing?!_ "

"Making sure we can get all of Snow White's costumes to fit you, dear! Now hold still, we're almost done," Flora said before they all ambushed me again.

Resigned to my fate for the moment, I turned my attention back to Larxene, "But what about one of the _other_ girl's in the chorus? There has to be- There _must_ be someone else who's more trained or… or would be a better _fit_ or-"

"For fuck's sake, Snowflake, why are you fighting this so hard? Do you _really_ need the validation of having me spell it out for you that badly?" Larxene snapped.

My head rocked back and I stared at her with eyes wide. "Wha… Validation? What are you… That's not-"

"Fine." She thrust up one hand to tick off her pinky finger, "One: you're consistent. _Annoyingly_ so. You're the only chorus member who's shown up to every single damn one of the rehearsals. Maybe because all those other pathetic losers have more of a life than you? Don't know, don't care."

Hey now, I had a life!

...I think… it was still sort of a work in progress...

"Two," up went the next finger, "you know the show front and back and could probably recite the whole damn thing from cover to cover at the drop of a hat. You think we haven't noticed you backstage, mirroring all the other actors' stage directions and dance routines and miming along with all the lines and songs like some dumb parrot?"

Oh gosh, they _saw_ that?! Color me mortified.

"Three, you actually got halfway decent pipes and should be able to handle Elphaba's songs at least well enough to not _completely_ embarrass yourself."

Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence.

Jutting out one hip to plant a fist against it, Larxene stared down her nose at me. "So what's it gonna be, Shortbread? You've put in the time, you know your stuff, you got the voice… question is, you got the balls to actually do it?"

I stiffened, sucking in a breath and holding it. I'd run out of arguments to push back with. And honestly…

...did I _really_ want to be arguing this?

The silence stretched as my heart pounded in my ears. Then finally and at long last, I gave a single yet vigorous nod. "Yes."

She smirked. "Good, cuz that was a trick question. You didn't actually have a choice, bitch."

The door to the room banged open as yet another person abruptly came sprinting into the room. She had long dark red hair beneath her newsboy cap and poking out of her shoulder bag was a crude hand-sewn doll that she was never seen without, though I'd never quite been able to figure out what it was exactly… a cat? A pig? Your guess was as good as mine. As for the girl herself, what I did know about her was that she also helped with costuming. Right now, she came bearing a giant black bottle that she waved high over her head. "Got it! Got th… the hair dye!" she panted out as she came stumbling to a stop and braced her shoulder against the wall for support, looking as if she'd just run a marathon.

"Hair dye?" my hand unconsciously went to my braid.

"Oh don't worry!" she gave an exhausted chuckle as she batted her hand through the air. "It's the kind that washes out, but it'll still look great on you!"

"Alright, wrap this up, ladies, we don't have all fucking day," Larxene snapped her fingers a couple times as she started making her way towards the exit. "Snowflake, your ass better be on stage in five so we can get this damn show on the road, got it?"

"Ah… y-yes, of course, I'll be-"

But she was already gone, slamming the door shut behind her.

"Shiki, be a dear and get these measurements to Sally," Flora finished jotting something down on two slips of paper before handing them both to the redhead. "There's a copy in there for you too, so you can grab Elphaba's nightgown for the _Popular_ scene and start taking in the waist."

"Got it!" Shiki nodded as solemnly as a soldier being sent off to war. I was surprised she didn't salute before she darted out through a door in back that led to a deeper part of the dressing rooms.

The remaining three women were suddenly a red, green and blue whirlwind of activity as they bustled about the room, a cacophony of noise once more, flailing costumes as they went. I just kind of stood off awkwardly to one side, rubbing my elbow. Fauna noticed me long enough for a quick but friendly, "We're done, dear."

"Oh, okay," I nodded as she dashed off.

More awkward standing.

"Go on, shoo!" Merryweather impatiently whipped the outfit she was holding at me as she blurred past.

With a start, I gasped, "Right! I, uh… I'll get out of your way," before hastily retreating out the door.

I was still kind of in a state of shock. Because, come on… that was a _lot_ to happen in the space of five minutes! Here I'd come in expecting to get cut, not to have a friggin' _lead part_ dropped into my lap. None of this felt real. Was this a dream? Or maybe more like a nightmare, considering I'd actually been crazy enough to say _yes_. Oh dear god, was I even ready for this?

Feet seemingly on autopilot, I hardly realized where I was even going as I numbly walked back out towards the audience seating. Lea was slouched down in one of the chairs in back, lollipop stick poking out of one corner of his mouth and red Converse kicked up onto one of the backrests of the row in front of him as he thumbed through his phone.

Looking up as I approached, he grinned and hopped up to his feet with a chipper, "How did it go with Larxy?" But then he squinted at me with a frown. "...do I need to knock her block off? Cuz I'll do it. I don't care if she's a girl, I'll-" he cut himself off, lips pursing to the left. "Scratch that, that hag scares the everliving crap outta me. But I'll tell you what, I will _definitely_ write her a strongly worded letter, or… ah! Passive aggressive post-it notes! That bitch is gonna be getting _so_ many passive aggressive post-it notes from me, she'll rue the day she ever messed with my boo!"

Shaking my head slowly and still in an almost sort of trance, I said, "They're, uh… they needed to make adjustments."

One of his eyebrows quirked. "Adjustments?"

I nodded, staring off into space, eyes unfocused. "To the, um… the…" I gestured to my clothes by way of explanation. Don't think he got it. I kept going as if he had though. "And there's hair dye. And a dry run. Because of the poison."

"Poison?" he echoed again, this time slightly more alarmed.

"So they asked me to- well, I mean, I told them they should have a- you'd think they _would_ have one, wouldn't you? But apparently no, not for _community_ theater. So I said, well why not Tiana? But.. but Larxene didn't want to play musical chairs, and I suppose she had a point. And Yuna hasn't been around and wouldn't know any of the- not to mention all of the other girls have more of a life, so that apparently makes me the-" I suddenly inhaled sharply, digging my phone out of my pocket. "I should tell Anna."

"What? Tell Anna _what?!_ " he asked, but I had already tapped her name in my contacts and was pressing the phone to my ear as I shushed him. His shoulders slumped and he muttered, "I have no freaking clue what's even happening."

It only rang once before a male voice answered, " _City zoo, reindeer speaking._ "

Rolling my eyes as I also heard Anna's faint snickering in the background on the other end of the line, I said, "Hi Kristoff. Could you put my sister on please?"

Oh yeah, those two were an item now. Well, kind of… it was still new and Anna was taking it slow for once.

They were actually kind of cute together.

Though it was really weird seeing Kristoff smile so much now.

" _Dweeb,_ " came a muffled giggle from Anna, which I assumed was more so directed at my coworker than at me. There were some shuffling sounds as the phone presumably exchanged hands before she came in loud and clear in my ear with a bright, " _Hey, Sis! What's up?_ "

At long last, a hint of a smile started to tug at my lips. "Something… something _amazing_ has happened, you'll never guess! I-"

" _Oh! I know already, and I am_ so _friggin' proud of you, you have no idea!_ "

I blinked, tipping my head to one side. "You are? Wait, how could you _possibly_ know already? I just-"

" _Lea told me!_ " My forehead wrinkled at that as my eyes darted to him. Suddenly she let loose a piercing squeal and I flinched, holding the phone away a bit. " _Ahhh! Lookit you! My big sis is all growed up and giving her man hickies! 'Bout friggin' time too!_ "

My right eye twitched.

Ah. Right. That. I'd almost forgotten.

My free hand snaked out to give Lea's arm another pinch and he yelped, lollipop tumbling from his lips. Fumbling to catch it, he grumbled, "Shit, El, what'd _I_ do?"

Jabbing my fingertip against his chest at the exact spot where I'd left my mark under his shirt, I hissed, "You know what you did."

With a tiny sheepish chuckle, he scratched a spot behind his ear. "Oh yeah…"

Oh-ho, he was going to rue the day. And trust me, it _wasn't_ going to be with passive aggressive post-it notes.

I narrowed my eyes on him as I continued my phone conversation, "First of all, I never want to hear the H-word coming out of your mouth again. You're my little sister, it's just… it's too weird." I paused with a small shudder, but then a grin slowly began fighting its way back onto my face. "Second of all… I'm Elphaba."

" _...elle-fab-wha?_ "

I made a noise in my throat that was half sigh, half groan. What, did she sleep through the show when she saw it last week? ...honestly, I wouldn't have been surprised. "A _lead_. They made me a lead, okay? Th-" a gasp stifled my words as my free hand flew up to cover my mouth. It was finally actually hitting me. This was real. Saying out loud had suddenly made it so very, _very_ real. "Oh my _god_ , they made me a lead."

" _They_ what?!" Anna shrieked in delight at the same time Lea surprised me by hugging my waist, picking me up and spinning me around as he laughed, "Babe, that's amazing!"

As he was putting me back down, I could hear Anna babbling, " _How did this happen?! Tell me, I want to know_ everything! _How is this even possible? Aren't all the leads filled?_ "

I opened my mouth to respond, but Lea started talking as well, "Did one of the stars call in sick? Shit, did she call in dead? You said something about poison, which is a thing I think we sorta glossed over and should circle back to."

Again, I took in a breath to form words. Again, I was cut off. " _Did they realize how friggin' talented and beautiful and incredible you are and just write a new leading part specifically for you?_ "

"Was the actress poisoned? Was she murdered?" Lea then gave a dramatic mock gasp. "...did _you_ murder her for the part?"

" _What am I saying? Of course that's what they did, ah! I can't believe they friggin' wrote in a whole new character just for you! Except I can believe it and I do!_ "

"Cuz if you did, you know you can tell me, right? Your secret is safe with me, just damn, El... who knew beneath that whole sweet, doe-eyed routine of yours beat the heart of a ruthless, cold-blooded killer?"

"Both of you, shush!" I huffed, finally managing to get a word in edgewise. Jeez, I could barely handle _one_ person talking to me on a good day, let alone two at the same time. To my boyfriend, I articulated slowly, "Food poisoning, Lea. _Food_ poisoning." As he just sniggered and shrugged, I spoke into the phone, "And Anna, no, that's not how plays work. Someone fell ill, I'm just filling in." I puffed out a soft breath and hesitated, worrying my bottom lip between my teeth now. "...listen, are you busy tonight? Do you think… Would you be able to make it?"

" _You want me there?! Really?_ " I winced at how shocked she sounded. " _I mean, Sis, don't get me wrong, I'd absolutely love to go, but… me being there, that wouldn't, ya know… psych you out or make you feel more pressure?_ "

Restless fingers fiddling with my braid, I was silent for a few seconds. Then I gave a firm nod even though I knew she couldn't see it. "I would… really like it if you were there. Kristoff can come too, if you want."

Another eardrum bursting squeal. Don't think I was joking either. Pretty sure that was blood I felt trickling out of my ear now. " _We are_ so _there! We'll be like your groupies! We'll paint our faces and hold up signs saying how much we heart you and-_ "

"No!" I said quickly. Because I knew Anna. She wasn't kidding. "No face paint, no signs!"

"Oo, what's this I hear about face paint and signs?" Lea's eyes lit up.

I hung my head, pressing my fingers to the spot between my eyebrows. "Great, now you've gotten Lea's hopes up. You know how he latches on."

Giggling, Anna said, " _And don't worry about inviting Mom and Dad, I'll pass the invite along to them for y-_ "

My shoulders stiffened. "Do _not_ tell them! They won't care."

" _But-_ "

"Just don't, Anna, okay? See you tonight." I scowled as my thumb pressed the 'End Call' button, silencing any further argument from her.

"Don't tell who what?" Lea asked, cocking his head slightly.

With a tiny exhale as I pocketed my phone, I said, "She wanted to invite my parents to tonight's show as well, which is ridiculous. They wouldn't want to come."

He frowned, then crossed his arms as he leaned one hip against an audience seat. "Do you want them there?"

I scrunched up my face. "...I haven't spoken to them in months. Not since that disastrous weekend you and I visited them. If the first thing they heard from me after all this time was to ask them to come see my silly little play… no, they wouldn't be interested. In fact, they'd probably be insulted. You know they discouraged my interest in theater all my life, so this would just be like a slap in the face to them. This is the last place they'd want to be, they wouldn't even be caught dead here. They won't come."

"But do you _want_ them there?" he pressed again.

Hugging myself, I looked down, staring hard at my feet. "...Anna better listen to me. She better not tell them, or I'll-"

"What part of 'ass on stage in five' did you not understand, Princess?!" Larxene's voice was suddenly booming throughout the auditorium. I whirled around to see all the other performers had arrived and were waiting on stage with our illustrious assistant director in the front, glaring daggers at me as she impatiently tapped her foot. "Chop, chop, we don't have all day!"

"C-Coming!" I stammered back, then screwed my eyes shut as another thought struck me. I muttered, "Shoot, I was going to call Rayne too."

"Don't worry, I'll pass the message along. We'll all be there with bells and whistles on," Lea winked. I gave him a quiet thank you as I turned to rush off. Before I could take so much as a step however, Lea stopped me with a, "Hey." I glanced back at him and he grinned softly as he reminded me, "They gave you a lead."

I blinked. Then a huge smile spread across my face.

This was happening.

This was real. Like, _really_ real.

Suddenly bubbling over with excitement and in need of an outlet, I flung myself at Lea and kissed him.

"God fucking damnit, _now_ , Snowflake!" Larxene snapped.

"Be right up!" I called as I released him, tossing him one final hasty wave over my shoulder as I dashed towards the stage.

This wasn't a dream.

This was really happening.

And I couldn't wait to get started.

* * *

Scratch that, I could wait.

Maybe hold off for another hour or two? Or, I don't know… twelve? Tomorrow! Yes, tomorrow, would be _great_. Or better yet, perhaps a week from now? Heck, why not round it up to a nice, even year. Sound good?

If it wasn't obvious, I was having second thoughts. Not to mention third and fourth thoughts to boot.

It was kind of hard not to when I'd made the mistake of peeking out past the curtains to see just how many people were out there. Answer? A lot. So many. _Too_ many. How did they even all fit in there? I could swear I remember the auditorium being a lot smaller… had it grown bigger in the past couple hours? Pretty sure it had grown bigger. I mean, that was the only _logical_ explanation for the sheer amount of people in the audience now, right? Right.

Letting go of the curtain to block out the terrifying sight once more, I drew in a slow breath and held it for a few seconds. There was about fifteen minutes left before the show was to start. Fifteen very few, very short minutes. My face and neck were painted green, along with my hands that currently shook as I wrung them together. My hair was black and still braided and very tempting to tug at, but I resisted. My costume - a formal, blue three piece skirt suit with a knit cap - still didn't quite fit right in some places, but it fit well enough. The costuming ladies had actually done a pretty amazing job in the scant time they'd had to work with, I couldn't even fathom how they'd managed to get everything done. My best guess? Magic. It was the only thing that made sense.

My pulse chugged along at what felt like a billion beats per second and… crud, my palms were clammy. I hoped that wouldn't wipe away the body paint. Ugh, you would think I wouldn't be so nervous. I mean, what was the big deal anyway? So what if I was going to be on stage in front of that huge crowd? You know what, I'd been on stage in front of a huge crowd last week too and I'd handled it just _fine_. True, I'd just been a part of the chorus then, whereas tonight I was Elphaba, but what was the difference, I mean _really?_ Just a handful of solo songs, a few hundred (or was it thousand?) more lines… then of course so many more eyes focused on me… so many more chances that something could go wrong…

Dammit, I was just being silly! Repeat after me, Elsa: nothing will go wrong. _Nothing_ will go wrong. After all, the dry run had gone smoothly, hadn't it? Almost surprisingly so. Now I just had to do the exact same thing again, only this time in front of a room full of people!

...so many, _many_ people...

Okay, this wasn't helping. I needed to take my mind off all this anxiety and calm down. What was that old trick for dealing with stage fright? ...picture the audience naked?

I hesitated, pursing my lips to one side. Then I poked a finger through the curtains once more to take another quick look. Then I was retracting my hand to my chest, letting the curtains fall shut again.

...yeah, no. Pretending like I was performing for a nudist colony? Not helping.

Now I was only nervous _and_ blushing. Just dandy.

A hand suddenly clapped down on my shoulder, making me jolt and swallow a small yelp.

"Don't worry, you'll be great!" someone whispered next to me. I turned my head to see Tiana smiling brightly at me, looking stunning in her poofy, sparkly Glinda dress with her hair done up in lustrous curls. "Break a leg."

It took a second for my brain to catch up and remember that that was an old theater saying for wishing me luck.

Oh gosh, were we… bonding? I wasn't quite sure, I didn't know what it looked like. Everyone here had always been nice enough to me, of course, but it's not like we interacted all that much outside of rehearsals, not _really_. I'd been getting slightly better with this whole human interaction thing, but I still wasn't exactly big on the concept. I didn't know what to do with this newfound showman camaraderie.

...at the very least, I should reciprocate, right?

As she moved off to get onto her floating platform that she was supposed to make her grand entrance on at the start of the show, I quietly but hastily called after her, "You, uh… y-you too! Break _both_ of them! And… and an arm as well!" Wait, what? "In fact, I'll break them all for you and-"

Both my hands shot up to gag myself.

For the love of… Learn to quit while your ahead, you stupid useless mouth!

Breathing a muffled sigh into my fingers, I slowly lowered my hands as I glanced up at the clock hanging on the wall. The minutes were ticking by far too quickly. My body was practically vibrating with all the nervous energy coursing through it and not for the first time, I seriously considered making a break for it. I knew where the back exit was to this place and I'd been left unsupervised. Really, that was just asking for trouble. Everyone should know by now what a goddamn friggin' flight risk I was!

I pushed that oh so appealing thought to the back of my mind however, locking it up and throwing away the key. A distraction… that's what I needed right now! But where to find such a thing…?

I looked to the heavy velvet curtain once more, pausing for a few heartbeats.

You'd think I'd have learned my lesson by now, but…

Yet again, I nudged it open a smidge to peek out.

It only took me a few seconds to spot them in the audience, third row from the front and slightly towards the right. Lea, Roxas, and Xion, chatting and laughing about something. Lea abruptly got Roxas in a headlock and started mussing up his hair while Xion just cackled. I hid a tiny grin behind my fingers as I watched Rayne reach across Xion, using her playbill pamphlet to swat at Lea's elbow trying to get him to stop manhandling Roxas.

This was what I'd needed to soothe me. To look out into that sea of people and see the faces of those I cared about.

To Rayne's right, Riku just read his own playbill and wisely stayed out of the mini-brawl that'd broken out. Then next to him were Anna and Kristoff. My sister was currently making a silly face as she took a selfie of the two of them, while he sported a goofy smile and couldn't seem to take his eyes off her.

Yes, _exactly_ what I'd needed. One look at Lea, Roxas, Xion, Rayne, Riku, Anna, Kristoff, and my parents already had me feeling _so_ much _-_

Wait…

Run that list by me again?

Lea, Roxas, Xion, Rayne, Riku, Anna, Kristoff, and-

I gasped, the curtain escaping my grasp and slipping back into place.

No, no, no, what were _they_ doing here?! They shouldn't be here! They _couldn't_ be here! There had to be some mistake! I must have been seeing things, it must have just been some… some trick of the light! Yeah, that had to be it! All I had to do was pull the curtain aside again and see for myself that it was just some _other_ older couple who looked ridiculously rich, ridiculously out of place, and ridiculously uncomfortable.

Swallowing hard, I tentatively reached for that thick velvet fabric once more, parting it by an inch.

...fudge. No question about it. That was definitely and without a doubt... my parents.

I released the curtains once more, frowning. A few seconds ticked by. Then I poked them to one side again.

Nope. Still there. Still them.

...maybe I should try closing and opening the curtains one more time?

Zip it, brain, you're not helping!

This just… this didn't make any sense! What were they even _doing_ here?!

My anxious eyes darted over a couple seats from them to where Anna was still in selfie mode, finger hooked in her mouth to flash her gums while she stuck out her tongue and crossed her eyes.

My eyelids drooped.

Why that little…

I dashed over to the dressing rooms, snatching my phone out of the locker I was using for my personal items before rushing back over to the curtains, fingers furiously tapping out a text message as I went.

_I will END you._

Annnnnnnd send.

Sneaking a glimpse out into the audience once more, I watched as Anna suddenly went very rigid, face pale and wide eyes locked on her phone screen. Then, as if she could sense my icy death glare on her, she looked up and directly at the tiny gap in the curtains through which I was peering. I swiped a finger slowly across my throat. She quite visibly gulped, gaze darting over to our parents. Oh yes. She knew _exactly_ why I was going to murder her. Then her thumbs were a blur as they started tapping at her phone. I felt mine vibrate in my hands and I glanced down at it.

_it wsnt me i swear thy just showd up id nevr do that 2 u plz dont kll me i luv u and thnk ur so so pretty_

As she then proceeded to spam me with various heart and kiss emojis, a crease formed between my eyebrows and I looked to the crowd once more. My parents wouldn't have known to come on their own, so _someone_ had to have told them.

If not Anna, then who…?

My gaze landed on _another_ certain redhead, currently snickering as his fingers ruffled his hair.

...oh-ho, he wouldn't have much left to snicker about by the time I was through with him.

Glancing to my phone once more, I swapped over to my text conversation with Lea and started typing.

_Left backstage door. Now._

I watched long enough to see him pull out his phone, quirk an eyebrow as he read my message, then hop up to his feet to make his way towards the requested rendezvous point. I ran behind stage, turning down a hallway and descending the steps leading to the other side of that same door. As I pulled it open a crack to peer out, I could see Lea standing there with his back to me, hands shoved into his pockets as he idly rocked on his feet while waiting. The audience murmur was dying down as the lights began to dim, indicating the show was about to start. That was okay, that still gave me roughly ten more minutes before I had to be on stage.

More than enough time to hide the body when I was through with my meddling boyfriend.

"Psssst," I hissed to get his attention, opening the door wider.

Lea spun around, took one look at me and snerked, both hands coming up to cup over his mouth. His eyes crinkled as he seemed to take a second to compose himself. Then in a whisper that shook with barely contained laughter, he said, "I'm sorry, but you make… the _cutest_ teenage mutant ninja turtle."

Not wanting to disturb the audience as the first notes of the play's music started up, I simply rolled my eyes, grabbed him by the front of the shirt and yanked him through the door, letting it fall shut behind him.

He stumbled into me, his hands immediately going to my hips as he smirked down the few inches that separated us. "Mmm, so that's what this is? Need me to help you work off some of those pre-show jitters, huh? Wouldn't think you'd have the time to squeeze in a lil makeout sesh, but if you insist…" He gently pressed me up against the wall, pinning my body there with his. Ducking his head down, his lips found my throat as he murmured, "I'll admit, I _am_ pretty curious to find out just how far down this green goes…"

I shivered as his kisses down my neck left a warm tingle in their wake.

...reason…

There'd been a _reason_ I'd wanted to see him, and this _wasn't_ it.

...unless… was it?

Wait! No! Focus, Elsa, focus! I'd wanted to talk to him about, uh… about my, uh…

"Parents!" I breathed out at last, regaining some semblance of thought as I cleared my throat. "It was you who invited my parents here, wasn't it?"

He stilled against my neck. Then he was straightening back up once more and I had to choke back a laugh. Thanks to my body paint, his mouth had now taken on a lovely shade of emerald. "Maybe… who wants to know?" he asked with a playful shrewdness. I narrowed my eyes up at him, to which he grinned, "No seriously, who? I can't tell which one you're supposed to be. Donatello? Raphael?"

"Bold of you to mock someone who's has intimate knowledge of all your weak points," I deadpanned, poking him in the side where I knew he was ticklish. He yelped and squirmed. Ah, sweet sweet vengeance. I then released a grumbling sigh. "...I told you not to tell them."

Lea struck up a finger, "Correction: you told _Anna_ not to tell them. You never said a word about what I _myself_ should or shouldn't do."

"But I said I didn't want them here!" I shot back, mindful to still keep my voice low.

"Did ya though?" he cocked an eyebrow at me. My hand shot out for his ticklish spot again, but he caught it with a triumphant, "Ha! But no really, you didn't. You _did_ however give me an impressive list of excuses as to why you assumed they wouldn't wanna come."

"Because they wouldn't!" I pressed. But then I hesitated, averting my gaze before muttering, "...or rather… I _thought_ they wouldn't." I shook my head. "...what did you even say to them?"

His shoulders gave a small shrug. "Nothing much, I don't even remember really. But cliff notes version? Something along the lines of how important this was to you and if they ever hoped to have even so much as a snowball's chance in hell of being a part of your life ever again, it'd be important to them too."

My face twisted sourly. It was kind of getting hard to stay mad at him. _Especially_ when I had to keep staring at those toad-lips of his. But damned if I wasn't going to try. "So what, you expect me to believe you just called them up and-"

"Oh," he chuckled and shook his head, "no, I didn't call. I mean, I tried to at first, but only got as far as leaving a message with the butler. So figured, hell, got several hours to kill before curtain time... why not take a lil road trip?"

I stared at him, eyes growing round. "Oh no."

Lea beamed, "Oh yes! We had quite the pleasant chat, your folks and I. In the... Jasmine Room I believe it was this time. It was nice. Cozy. There was even tea."

A quiet snort escaped me now as my expression softened, reaching a hand up to touch his cheek. "...that was a very sweet, not to mention a very stupid and overstepping thing to do."

"If by 'stupid and overstepping' you mean 'brilliant and endearing,' then you and I are in total and one hundred percent agreement," one side of his mouth quirked. He then puffed out a smug, lofty sigh, "What can I say, I just can't help being so awesome. Try not to swoon while in the presence of the awe-inspiring greatness that is yours truly."

I gave him a blank look. "Your lips are green."

He blinked, removing one hand from my waist to poke at his lips before pulling his fingertip away to discover it was now a delightful lime color. Then he flashed his dimple, "You say that like it _isn't_ just another example of my awesomeness."

Biting back a small smile, I idly smoothed a thumb at the corner of his mouth. "I will say I am rather fond of the way it brings out the color of your eyes."

"Now ya gone and done it," he hugged me more tightly against him. "This moment right here? You remember it good. Now when I go and start making green lipstick my new aesthetic, just remember that it's all thanks to you telling me that."

"...fudge."

He snerked before leaning his face in closer to mine now, his breath warming my lips as he whispered, "Now whaddya say to me laying some sweet green sugar on ya, babydoll?"

I spluttered in amusement, clamping a hand over his mouth before he could finish closing the distance. "And risk you ruining my makeup even further? I don't think so. Besides, I should get back, I'm sure I must be due on stage any minute."

Pulling his face free of my grasp, he now rested his forehead to mine and nuzzled our noses together. "C'mon, you're fine. One lil smooch or two won't hurt any-"

A sudden loud, ominous crackle filled the air. We both turned our heads to discover now standing at the top of the stairs was a certain assistant director with a homicidal gleam in her eye as she held up a sparking taser. Larxene shut it off, gravely intoning, "Oh you miserable little man. How shall I fry thy lame-o ass for trespassing backstage? Let me count the ways." The taser buzzed with electricity once more.

"Gottarunbabeknock'emdeadoutthere," Lea blurted out, planting a swift peck to my forehead before bolting out the door back to audience seating so fast, you'd have missed if you'd blinked.

Leaving me to face the walking, talking electrocution chair in human form all on my own.

Gee thanks, Lea. So brave. So valiant. My hero.

The big, fat chicken.

I gulped, licking my dry lips and squaring my shoulders. "Larxene, I-"

"Will you just go get ready for your cue?" she huffed, stepping aside and gesturing with the taser for me to get a move on. "I'll chew you out after the show."

Releasing a small breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding, I nodded and ran up the steps past her. As I snatched up and put on my prop glasses, picked up the student briefcase to complete my costume and got into position just offstage, I saw that it was almost time for me to make my entrance. It was just now hitting me that I'd been so distracted by having my little chat with Lea that I'd missed out on precious panicking time. As if my body were trying to make up for it all at once, my heart rate abruptly skyrocketed, blood rushed in my ears and my knees trembled.

But beneath it all was also the teeniest flash of giddiness.

This was it.

There was no time left for freaking out or worrying about what could go wrong or stressing out about my parents being in the audience.

I tensed as I heard my cue, hesitating for a beat.

There was no time left for anything except to just go out there and get on with it.

So I did. I drew in a deep breath and took that first step out onto the stage.

* * *

I will never forget those first five minutes.

Everything about it had just been so… _different_. Being a _lead_ had made it all different. The warmth radiating from the stage lights above had been different. The hush from an auditorium packed with people had been different. Even the very air itself as I'd breathed it into my lungs had felt different.

Those first five minutes would stay with me forever until the day I died. Because those five minutes had been undeniably and without question…

...the absolute _worst_ experience of my whole life.

I'd tripped and stumbled over my own two feet. I'd forgotten simple stage directions. I hadn't talked loud enough at first. When I finally _did_ speak up, I'd stammered through half my lines and completely skipped over others all together. At one point, I'd even accidentally said somebody _else's_ line for them.

It'd been terrible. Simply awful. Literally a nightmare. One I was pretty sure I'd had before. One I'd kept praying to wake up from but never did. I'd wanted to run off the stage. Just flee into the night and never look back. Every last molecule of my being had been all but screaming at me to do so.

But I didn't.

Somehow - and I'm still to this day not quite sure how exactly - I'd stuck it out. I stood fast and stubbornly soldiered through it. And I'm so glad I did.

Because waiting at the end of those infernal five minutes had been my first song.

From the second those opening musical notes filled the air and hit my eardrums, everything had changed. My body began to relax as the tension eased bit by bit. For that tune had reminded me why I was here. That this is something I really, _really_ wanted to do. Had dreamed of doing ever since I was a little girl. Suddenly it no longer mattered that there was an audience out there. It didn't matter that all eyes were on me.

All that mattered was pouring my heart into my song and giving it my all.

After that, everything suddenly seemed to just click. I knew where to go. I knew what to do. I knew what to say as clearly as if I'd had the script on a teleprompter in front of me the whole time that only I could see. I was no longer scared little Elsa trying and failing miserably at playing a role. I _was_ that role. I _was_ Elphaba.

And it was amazing.

Perfect, in fact.

Before long, I was singing my last song with Glinda. Before long, I was making my final exit offstage with the Scarecrow as the curtains closed behind us. Before long, I was stepping out with the rest of the cast to take our bows before the applauding crowd. And before long, it was all over and I was descending down the steps into the audience area…

...where I was immediately all but tackled to the ground by Anna, Rayne, and Xion in a vicious group hug.

"Guys, if you were trying to squeeze the life out of me, you've succeeded," I wheezed, trying to wriggle free. "It's done. There's no life left in me. Now for the love of all that is good and oxygenated, let go!"

Thankfully they released me. Ah, blessed, blessed air, how I missed thee. Xion was the first to pipe up with, "Oh my _god_ , Elsa! You were fantastic! I had no idea you were gonna be so good!"

"Good?! Please," Anna scoffed before grabbing me by the shoulders to excitedly shake me, "Sis, you _crushed_ it!"

"My precious bab is gonna grow up to be a star!" Rayne bawled, pinching both my cheeks.

Baby hormones. Don't mind her.

Pulling my face free of her fingers, I humored them with a shy smile. "You're all very sweet, but it's okay. There's no need to exaggerate."

Anna narrowed her eyes over a grin, "Please, don't even _try_ to give us that BS. You were phenomenal and you know it!"

I gave her a flat look. "Oh yeah, so phenomenal. Especially those first few minutes."

"Shhhh," Xion pressed a finger to my lips with a smirk. "We pretend those minutes don't exist."

A throat cleared, causing the girls to turn and part to reveal the other half of their little group, aka the boys. Lea was front and center, one corner of his lips (oh dear lord, they were _still_ the color of grass) twitching up as he stepped forward with a colorful bouquet in hand.

I fought a losing battle to suppress my growing smile as I took the flowers from him, not failing to notice the winter honeysuckle sprinkled into the mix. Crinkling my eyes up at him, I teased, "What a totally outdated and unnecessary gesture… thanks, I hate it."

"Liar," he snorted, slipping a hand around my waist as he pressed his lips to my hair. "Way to own that stage. I mean it, El. You kicked some serious ass up there."

Anna shook her head with a soft giggle, "That's what we were _trying_ to tell her!"

"But the goob doesn't know how to take a compliment," Rayne tsked, flicking my forehead.

"What? C'mon, don't play coy. You know you were pure awesome incarnate, _way_ better than that other chick that usually plays her," Lea booped his fingertip to my nose.

I suddenly felt very grateful that I was still caked in body paint. All the better to hide my blush with, my dear. I scrunched up my nose and averted my gaze, "You're just saying that because you're biased."

"Oh, one hundred percent. But doesn't make it any less true!" he chirped.

I rolled my eyes.

Time for a topic change.

"Your lips are still green."

Hey, I never said anything about it being a particularly _good_ topic change.

"And this surprises you how? I already told ya, babycakes, this is my new brand. Speaking of, time to apply a fresh coat!" And with that, he began smothering me from temple to cheek to jaw in kisses. I squirmed, smacking him with the bouquet.

"Anyone else up for a late dinner?" Riku chimed in as he joined his wife at her side, hugging an arm around her shoulders and nuzzling her cheek before turning his gaze on me. "You must be starved after blowing away the whole audience like that."

Oh gosh, if one more person complimented me, I fear I might explode. I'd never been built to handle so much attention and praise. It made me uncomfortable and I never knew how to respond, nor did I really want it. All I'd ever wanted to was to simply put on what was hopefully at least a halfway decent show.

As the others rumbled in agreement about finding somewhere to eat that'd still be open this late, I nodded as well, "Just… give me a moment to get changed and clean off all this green."

"No no, my sweet, leave it on… for _later_ ," Lea cooed into my ear, waggling his eyebrows.

A huff of a laugh escaped me. "Now you're just making it weird."

Eyes dancing, his mouth opened to retort but before he could make so much as a sound, somebody else was interjecting with, "Pardon us."

I inhaled sharply, my spine snapping ramrod straight at that voice.

Crud, I'd completely forgotten that _they_ were here.

Our whole group suddenly fell very quiet as all eyes turned to a nearby couple standing uncertainly off to one side, watching us all warily.

My parents.

Looking just as uncomfortable and out of place as they had before the show.

As they tentatively began to approach, Roxas and Kristoff shifted to make space for them. Their eyes settled on me at first before briefly flicking over towards Lea, who still had his arms wrapped tightly around me with seemingly zero intention of removing them, propriety be damned. I had to resist the very strong urge to clap my hand over his minty lips, abruptly very aware of the fact that that was probably what'd drawn my parents' fleeting focus to him. Thankfully, they made no comment. I'm not even sure what I would have said if they had.

Looking to me once more, Mother was finally the first to break the silence that somehow felt like it'd already been going for absolute centuries. "Elsa," she began but paused, an unsure frown in place as she seemed to search for the right words. "...you... did very well."

"Yes," Father lifted his chin slightly, the epitome of stiff politeness. "The show was… adequately entertaining."

I felt Lea's muscles go rigid beside me, could see his nostrils flaring out of the corner of my eye. I was quick to place a hand to his chest, speaking up before he could. "Th-thanks… Thank you very much," I told them softly with a small bow of my head.

They looked like they may have wanted to say more, but apparently seemed to think better of it. Instead, Father went with, "It's late. We best be off."

"See you back at home," Mother told Anna, reaching over a hand to lightly brush at her cheek. My sister's eyes darted from her over to me, then back. Then she just gave a tiny nod and said nothing as our parents turned and left.

Once they were out those double doors at the far end of the auditorium, Lea grumbled, "'Adequately entertaining' my ass… what was that bullshit?"

My gaze still on where they'd exited, a slow smile spread across my lips. " _That_ was them trying," I murmured, glancing up at him. "I think maybe I'll give them a call tomorrow."

* * *

_**Author's Note:** _ _Ha! You didn't SERIOUSLY think I'd include "Wicked" in this and not let Elsa get to play the role of Elphaba, did you?! For those of you who don't know, Elsa's voice actress Idina Menzel is also famous for being Elphaba in the musical "Wicked"! So of course I couldn't let El's talents be wasted in the chorus for the entire show… our ice queen bab got her time to shine! And if how Elsa came around to getting to play the part sounds possibly far fetched, it's not as much of a stretch at it might seem! I did some research into it and it's true: it's very common in community theater to not have understudies, so if someone gets sick or otherwise can't perform, often the first place they'll look for a replacement is in the chorus! Side note: I for some reason took WAY too much joy in my stupid lil Snow White and food poisoning reference, don't ask me why xD In any case, El got to do one or two more shows as Elphaba (basically finished out that specific weekend's showings) before Snow White was feeling well enough to resume the role. But Elsa definitely had a blast and is eager to hopefully get a bigger part in whatever show her community theater decides to put on next! As for her folks, don't get me wrong, they're still in the dog house and won't be off the hook for a while yet, but the olive branch has been extended, a shaky truce has been formed and an awkward phone call is now made from time to time… for now xD Also - and this won't be any time soon, mind you - but I might have to go back at some point and write out another brief one-shot just for Lea's lil visit with El's folks where he "politely" (ha!) invited them to the show xD_

_Thank you so much for reading, especially to those of you who have left a kudos and shared with me your thoughts and feelings on this story so far! Remember, feedback is not only welcome, but highly encouraged and super appreciated!_

_Be back for next week's bonus chapter! In which there will be… BELLS! Do these bells have any particular significance to the plot of next chapter? Or are they just a brief prop and a red herring for this author's note? Stay tuned!_


	33. Chapter 33

"Are you _sure_ we're allowed to do this?"

Lea tossed me a grin over his shoulder, giving my hand a small, reassuring squeeze as he pushed through the door and led me inside. "Course! Trust me, I've done it dozens of times. It's called auditing a class," he whispered.

"Oh," I breathed softly, taking a second to glance around the theater we'd just stepped into, which was slightly bigger and nicer than the Sunset Hill Auditorium. Class was already in session it seemed, with the teacher (who luckily hadn't appeared to notice us sneaking in) up on the stage and currently mid-lecture to the smattering of students dotted across the audience seating. I felt Lea tugging my hand again and I followed him as we ducked into the back row, gingerly slipping by in front of a couple people occupying the end chairs.

I'd of course heard of auditing a class, but had never actually done it before, so I didn't really know what it entailed. Still, I at least had a guess at an idea of how it was supposed to work. "...so you contacted the professor and got his okay for us to be here then?"

"Nah," he chose a pair of empty seats towards the middle, plopping down into one. "Don't need to, ya just show up."

My lips pursed to one side as I lowered myself into the one next to him. "...now that doesn't sound right," I muttered as my fingers absently fidgeted with the zipper on the sleeve of his leather jacket that I was wearing.

With a snerk, he settled his elbow on the armrest between us and propped his chin on his knuckles as he eyed me. "Look, did you or did you not say how much ya'd like it if you could get a sneak peak at Twilight U's _Intro to Acting_ course before deciding if you were gonna enroll?"

"Well yes I did, but-"

"Then don't look a gift audit in the mouth, dollface," his fingers tweaked my nose. Still, I frowned uncertainly. With a chuckle, he slung an arm around my shoulders, hugging me into his side and smoothing a hand up and down my arm as he pressed a kiss to my temple. "Relax, we're fine. Just remember, this guy? Right here?" he jabbed a thumb into his collarbone. "Done it hundreds o' times, so I know my shit."

I squinted up at him, whispering, "...you said _dozens_ of times a second ago."

"Nu-uh, maybe it's 'bout time ya had your ears checked. Ah, for the hearing to already be going in one so young such as yourself. Such a tragedy," he sighed, still keeping his voice low as he clasped a hand to his chest, fingers splayed. "My heart, it weeps for you, lil one."

"Whatever," I gave a quiet scoff, rolling my eyes.

Right then and there, I should've stopped talking and paid attention to the lecture.

And I tried. Believe me, I _really_ did try. I needed to be listening to whatever it was the professor was saying. That was the whole point of being here after all, wasn't it?

And yet-

" ...pretty sure you needed to ask the professor first," I mumbled out of the corner of my mouth.

"Shh," Lea held a finger up to his smirking lips, his eyes glued to the lecturer as he slouched down into his seat now. " _Some_ of us are trying to _learn_ here."

I narrowed my gaze over at him. "...what are you doing?"

He turned his head towards me, giving me a flat look. "Didja not _hear_ what I just said? Wow, maybe we really _do_ gotta look into getting you a hearing aid, grannie."

My hand lightly shoved his shoulder. "No, I mean it looks like you're slouching."

"Seems your vision's still twenty-twenty. Sweet, least ya got that going for ya."

My eyelids drooped, "It would almost seem as if you don't want to be seen. One might even go so far as to say you look like you're trying to _hide_."

"An astute observation," was all he said with a noncommittal little shrug.

Leaning away from him slightly, I crossed my arms. "If it's okay for us to be here, why oh why then, pray tell, would you be worried about being spotted?"

Slumping down even deeper into his chair, he gave a lazy, dismissive wave of his hand, "We don't want to draw attention to ourselves and interrupt the class. It's a matter of course auditing _etiquette_ , El. I'd know," he grinned and winked at me, "done it thousands of times."

"And the number keeps growing," I shook my head with a derisive snort. "What, are you auditing all these classes even as we speak?"

"Why yes, yes I am. Wait for it…" he held up a finger and paused for a couple beats. Then, "Bam. Just audited another one."

I facepalmed, "You're ridiculous."

"Bam, bam. Two more down. Lookit me go, I'm a course auditing wiz!"

"I'm rethinking taking this class," I grumbled under my breath.

Lea jolted, sitting up straighter, "Wha-? Aw c'mon, we were gonna take it together though!"

I shot him a rueful grin. "That's _why_ I'm rethinking it. You're too distracting."

Smiling, he ducked down next to my ear and whispered, "You mispronounced the word delightful. Don't worry, babe, it happens to the best of us."

I was _this_ close to smacking his arm when a throat cleared loudly in front of us. We both stiffened and froze before slowly turning our gazes towards the source.

A tall, lanky man eccentrically dressed in purples and yellows who hadn't been there a second ago was now in the row before us, knees perched on his seat cushion with him backwards in the chair so he could face us. Elbows propped on the backrest, his shoulder-length black hair framed his smirking face as he rested his goateed chin in his palms and simply watched the two of us.

And it was just suddenly coming to my attention that _all_ eyes in the theater were on us now and the whole place had fallen eerily quiet.

Maybe because the professor was no longer talking on stage.

Maybe because he was the man now directly in front of us with a bright grin and predatory gleam in his eye.

"Oh, I'm _so_ sorry," he batted his eyelashes at us, his toothy smile stretching even bigger. "How _rude_ of me to interrupt you while you're talking. Please, do go on!"

"We're done!" Lea chirped back, mirroring the man's expression. "Don't mind us back here, we're just auditing the course."

"Ah! Auditing the course, I see, I see! Well that explains it!" he perked up with a chuckle. "Just if you could then, my dear boy, answer me one simple lil question… who am I?"

I sensed a trap.

One that I might be able to sneak my way out of, given the lecturer's full attention seemed to be on Lea at the moment.

I discreetly moved over one chair.

"Pop quizzing me already, eh Teach? Pft," Lea waved a dismissive hand. "That one's a no brainer. You're the professor!"

"No, no," he hummed a small laugh and waggled his index finger. " _Who_ am I?"

"Oh, I see." Lea squinted at him with a frown, "...well, that's a rather deep and complex question. Did we wander into a Psych class by mistake?"

_We?_ What is this "we" business? Oh-ho no, you're on your own, bucko.

I quietly slipped over into the next seat.

A tiny, amused huff escaped the man's nose. "No, silly boy. My _name_. What is it?"

One corner of his lips quirking, Lea gave a small shrug, "Well if even _you_ don't know, I'm not sure how you expect _me_ to help ya with that one."

He shook his head and tsked several times. But then his face immediately lit back up once more as he placed a hand over his breast and slowly enunciated, "Clopin Trouillefou."

Lea's eyes widened. "Shit, you having a stroke there, buddy?"

"...it's my name."

To Lea's credit, while "Clopin" deceptively reads like it only has two syllables, the professor had said it in a way that somehow stretched it out to four and-

...and _why_ am I wasting valuable seat moving time by explaining this right now?

I made up for it by pulling the rather slick maneuver (if I do say so myself) of shifting over _two_ chairs.

"Something you'd know if you'd audited correctly and contacted me first," Professor Trouillefou tacked on in a lightly chiding singsong.

Ha! I _knew_ it!

My chair scooching became a tad smug as I crept over to the next.

"Ya know what, I actually did? Was just testing ya." Lea shot him a double thumbs up, "Well done, my dude. A-plus!"

He laughed, "Nice try, my dear boy, but I'm pretty sure I'd remember you if we'd spoken previously."

Lea heaved a dramatic sigh, "Woulda thought so too and to be perfectly honest, Clarabelle, I-"

"Clopin," he corrected dryly.

"Right. To be perfectly honest, Clip-Clop, I'm a lil hurt that ya didn't. But ya know what?" he flashed a huge blinding smile. "I'mma let ya slide on this one, bygones and whatnot. Just don't let it happen again!"

One more seat over and I was as far as I could go. I was now sitting next to the pair of students at the end of the row that we'd passed on the way in. Aka my new pals. That redheaded nutjob over there? The one who seemed to be taking perverse pleasure in pushing the professor's buttons and was probably nano seconds away from getting kicked out? Yeah, no, zero clue who _that_ was. Never seen him before in my life, and I _certainly_ hadn't shown up with him. No, I'd come here with my two friends here, Chet and um… _Karen_.

...yeah, they looked like they could be a Chet and a Karen, so that's what I'm going with.

"You're too kind," the professor deadpanned before his lips took on a wicked upward curve. "Well then, since I'm _clearly_ mistaken here and you _obviously_ did in fact contact me, I've _no_ doubt in my mind that you've also paid to audit my course?"

Both eyebrows shot up Lea's forehead. "Crap, we hafta pay?! What the hell then is even the point of auditing?!"

His sinister grin twitched wider and he said in a sickeningly sweet tone, "Get. Out. Now." He then pointed a finger directly at me, "You too."

I stiffened.

Fudge.

"What? No, I-" my voice broke in a squeak. Clearing my throat and plastering on my sincerest teacher's pet smile, I tried again, "No, I don't know him. He just sat next to me and started bothering me."

"Traitor," Lea hissed at me.

I ignored him, still addressing the professor. "I'm actually here with my friends," I leaned slightly towards said friends. "Isn't that right, Chet?"

Ah, Chet... my ol' chum, my ol' buddy, mi amigo, my-

"Er… my name's not Chet."

...you're dead to me, Chet.

"Alright, let's go, you two," Professor Trouillefou put one hand on the backrest of his chair and vaulted himself over it into our row. He then yanked Lea up out of his seat and started dragging him by the scruff of his shirt towards the aisle. As they passed where I was sitting, he pulled me up to my feet as well and kept going, towing me by the wrist.

Lea staggered along, trying to dig in his heels, "Aw, c'mon, man! Throw me out if ya gotta, but can't you give her a pass at least? She's totally innocent!"

"Which is the worst crime of all!" the lecturer shot back gleefully, not breaking stride.

We were almost to the doors leading back outside. Heart thudding and desperate not to be forcibly removed from the class, I blurted out, "We're planning to take the course next semester!"

At that, the professor slowed, glancing back at me with one eyebrow cocked. "Pardon?"

...wow, that actually worked?!

Swallowing hard, I gave a small, hesitant nod. "We only… we stopped by today just for a quick peek. We, um… wanted to know what we would be getting ourselves into, if… if that's okay? That is, uh… p-please?"

He didn't answer at first, his gaze just darting back and forth between Lea and me several times, eyes calculating. Then he beamed so big and so abruptly, it startled a small jump out of me. "Well, why didn't you just say so?!" Before I even knew what was happening, he'd shifted his hold on the both of us to instead grab Lea's hand in one of his and my hand in the other before he happily skipped - yes, friggin' _skipped_ \- off towards the front of the theater with us stumbling behind him. "Come one, come all, class!" he gave a boisterous trill. "Up on the stage for warm-ups, everyone!"

Oh dear, what had I just gotten myself into?

Maybe just getting kicked out _would_ have been the better call.

As he led us onto the stage, my feet tripping over the steps the whole way, I stammered out, "Th-thank you, I really ah… _appreciate_ this opportunity, b-but I was thinking we could maybe more just, hrm… observe?"

The teacher gave a booming scoff as he pulled us to a stop, the rest of the students in the theater filing up the stairs as well to join us. "Don't be silly, you don't _observe_ an acting class!" He paused before declaring with dramatic emphasis, "You _act_ an acting class!"

Oh.

Well then… my mistake.

"Gather 'round, boys and girls, we've got ourselves some fresh meat to play with today!" Professor Trouillefou cackled as he finally released Lea and me with a small shove towards the center of the ring of students grouped up with us now. Producing (from where, I know not) what looked to be some sort of theater prop in the form of a long scepter with round jingle bells dangling from the top end, he tapped it to his shoulder pensively as he asked, "Now, what lil drama exercise should we use to break in our sweet, young, starry-eyed would-be thespians here with, hm?"

One undergrad's hand shot up as she called out, "Topsy Turvy?"

"Court of Miracles?" came another suggestion from somewhere else in the small crowd.

"Hush, let's not throw them in the deep end right out the gate! There's no need to _upstage_ each other for the toughest game, we wouldn't want it to be _curtains_ for the newbies so soon! Heh… lil theater humor for you there," the professor chuckled with a wink. "No, I was thinking we could warm up with something a lil easier, something like… ah, yes! How 'bout a rousing game of _Stroking the Animal_?"

Lea snerked beside me, crossing his arms, "Dirty. Didn't realize we were in _that_ kind of class."

That earned him a bonk to the skull from the jingly scepter.

Flashing his pearly whites, the teacher went on as if he hadn't been interrupted, " _Stroking the Animal_ is an excellent lil game for drama beginners! Each of you are going to pair up and choose some sort of beastie - _secretly_ , mind you, don't tell your partner! Then you'll each take turns acting out holding your critter, petting it, caring for it - not saying a word, just purely miming - until your partner correctly guesses what it's supposed to be."

"So… it's kind of like charades?" I asked slowly.

With a triumphant point of the jingly scepter in my direction, he proclaimed, "Precisely, my dear, precisely! Now everyone, take a minute to decide on an animal while you find your partners! Hop to it, chop chop!"

"Dibs on my acting buddy!" Lea snagged my hand and raised it high, showing he'd staked claim.

As the rest of the students began pairing off around us, I scrunched up my nose and muttered, "I'm _terrible_ at charades."

"What?!" his brow furrowed. "But charades is just kinda, sorta acting, isn't it? And you love acting!"

"Yes, _acting_. Musicals, plays, _scripts_ ," I emphasized, my hands twisting at my braid momentarily before restlessly shifting back to fiddling with the sleeve zipper once more. "You know, lines and directions I can memorize and follow. Charades is more like improv's distant cousin twice removed. I _hate_ improv… whenever I'm put on the spot like that, I just sort of freeze up and draw a complete blank. So yeah, I'm not exactly the biggest fan of charades. It's a game that just makes me feel silly and-"

"Time's up!" A ringing filled the air, coming from the dreaded jingly scepter. I was really beginning to hate that noisy little stick. Once Professor Trouillefou had everyone's attention back on him, he called out, "Begin!"

Crud, I hadn't even picked an animal yet!

Alright, brain, go time! Think, think, _think!_ Conjure me up a creature! Go on, spit out the first thing you can think of! Just give me something! _Anything!_

Naked mole-rat!

...okay, maybe not _that_ one.

We're looking for something nice, simple and _obvious_ here, something that'll only take seconds to guess, something like a… a _cat!_ Yes! _Perfect!_

Hey, don't judge me! It's not like I was trying to earn points for creativity here, I just wanted to get this ridiculous game over and done with quickly!

The other students had already begun. Not wanting to fall behind, I hastily struck up a finger to Lea to indicate I was ready. Then I looked away with a frown, my hands hovering in uncertainty for a few seconds. Okay, a cat… how do I show that I have a cat? Grimacing, I awkwardly scooped one arm in front of me like I was cradling something close to my belly and used my other hand to start petting the air where its imaginary head would be.

Eh, good enough, right?

Lea's face brightened, "Oh, a puppy!"

Alright, close! Come on, you got this. Not a dog, but a…

He squinted. "...bunny?"

...sorry, not the answer we were looking for here. Would the contestant care to venture another guess? Third times a charm, after all! _Surely_ he'll get it this-

"Porcupine!"

Wait, what?

"Snake!"

For the love of… in what _possible_ universe could the make-believe thing in my arms ever be a friggin' _snake?!_

"Turtle? Penguin! Oo-oo, this _has_ to be it… hyena! No? Armadillo? Puffin! Skunk! _Capybara!_ "

Okay, now the jerk was just doing this on purpose to mess with me.

"Naked mole-rat!"

Are you _kidding_ me?! Shoot, I should have gone with my first instinct!

Narrowing my eyes at him, I made a growling little huff in my throat and started petting at the pretend feline's head more aggressively.

As if that would actually help.

Did I mention how completely _bad_ at charades I was?

"El, ya gotta give me something to work with here," Lea groaned, rubbing at the nape of his neck. "I mean c'mon, you're just petting air there, that doesn't tell me any-" he cut himself off, blinking a couple times. Then he snapped his fingers with a victorious smile, "Ah-ha! Got it!"

My whole body froze.

Wait, did he really?

"Air elemental! No, no, air _spirit!_ "

Gah, that's not even a real animal, you dork!

I scowled at him, my hands moving to strangle the air in his direction as I pictured his throat between my fingers.

He looked horrified. "Don't do _that_ to the poor creature! That's animal abuse!"

I give up! I puffed out a loud sigh, tossing my hands in defeat.

"Well now ya just dropped the critter." He gave a soft _tsk_. "Worst. Pet owner. Ever. Well… I mean, unless of course it's a cat, then that's fine cuz it'd just land on its-"

"Ah!" My heart leapt in delight. "Yes! That's it!" I laughed, barreling into his chest and hugging him around the waist.

He grunted softly from the impact, then quirked an eyebrow down at me. "Are you serious? Ya couldn't get me to guess cat? Well shit, babe, you really _do_ suck at this game! If we ever play charades in the future, Anna will be the one who gets stuck with your undeniably cute but useless butt on _her_ team."

Face pinching, I poked him where he was ticklish just below the rib cage.

"Hey, no fair!" he squirmed, jumping away from me. Then clearing his throat, he straightened up with a dignified sniff and grinned, "Alright, my turn now!"

...oh yeah. He gets a turn too.

I _completely_ forgot that part.

Well fudge, I should have simply let _him_ go first and saved myself the mini panic attack.

Lea closed his eyes and bowed his head, his hands rising and falling with a deep inhale and slow exhale. He was clearly and quite visibly honing, as if preparing to act out some great Shakespearean monologue. Finally, he snapped into action. He flourished his arms to one side, as if proudly presenting something standing next to him. Then his hand moved to start stroking empty space somewhere at about his eye-level.

Okay... so the mystery animal was tall.

I tipped my head to one side. "...a horse? A camel?"

He raised his hand up higher so it was above his head, still petting away.

Even bigger, huh?

"Ostrich?" I wrinkled my nose. "Moose? Giraffe?"

Lea went up onto his tippy-toes, his arm stretched as far as he could reach and fingers now… possibly giving under-chin scritches? Maybe?

Jeez, just how huge _was_ this thing?

I shook my head with a tiny, unsure, "...whale?"

He lowered back down onto his heels, resuming the stroking at a height not quite as far up there, but still above his head.

Alright, so… what was smaller than a whale, but bigger than a giraffe?

"...a really, _really_ big giraffe?"

Elsa, Queen of Thinking Outside The Box.

His eyelids drooped. But seemingly undeterred, he set about moving over to where I'd roughly guess would be the side of this ginormous creature. He mimed climbing up it and slinging his leg over its back.

Big and rideable, huh?

"Ah! A… A… An elephant!" I stammered to get out past my sudden excitement.

Lea was still going, bending forward to give his mount a couple pats on the shoulder (I guess?) before pointing up. Then he stretched his arms out wide to either side of him like he was… soaring?

"A _flying_ elephant!"

Wait, no, that'd just be silly.

We were looking for a real animal here. A _large_ animal that could apparently fly. It had to be some kind of bird, right? But… pretty sure there weren't any elephant-sized birds out there in the world… were there?

Note to self: google "elephant-sized bird" later.

Tuning back into reality, I realized Lea had moved onto showing me something else now. It seemed he'd dismounted and returned to petting the thing's… head, maybe? But then he elicited a tiny, pained _tch_ and retracted his finger like he'd been burned. But no, that couldn't be right… no animals in actual existence _burned_ people, so what could it… oh! It must have just _bitten_ him… yes, that'd make more sense!

Now he was looking at the ground and rubbing his hands together before turning his palms forward, holding them there for a few seconds. Then he balled both hands, stacking one on top of the other and lifting the top one up in a long, straight line. With one hand still fisted, he then cupped the other upward and arced it over until it was upside down a few feet over his fist. Finally, he stretched his fist out in front of him while using his other hand to occasionally poke and pinch at the air above said fist.

I stared blankly at him. "...yeah, no, you've lost me."

The jingly scepter rang out loudly as the professor shook it high above his head, announcing, "Game over, boys and girls!"

Lea snorted and sighed, "Clearly I was roasting marshmallows there."

"...clearly." Not. "But why?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Well what _else_ am I gonna do with the fire that my good, big dragon boi here breathed for me?" he asked, once again gesturing to the vacant spot next to him.

"A dragon?" I huffed, marching over to him to glare down (or rather _up_ I suppose) my nose at him. "You were supposed to pick a _real_ animal."

He grinned and folded his arms beneath his chest. "Teach never said it hadta be real."

I blinked, then glanced towards Professor Trouillefou, who shrugged and echoed, "Never said it had to be real."

"Told ya!" Lea razzed his tongue at me.

In retaliation, my hand shot out to tickle him again, but he caught it. "Ha! Too slow!" he crowed, smirking as he shifted his hold to lace our fingers together.

So instead I just tickled him with my other hand.

He spasmed, hissing swear words under in breath before scrambling to get out of my reach. I crossed my arms and - in peak maturity, mind you - razzed my tongue back at him before looking away with a small harrumph.

The professor clapped his hands together, "Alright, well done, class! Gold star for everyone!" From his pocket, he pulled out a small, glittery star sticker that he slapped to the forehead of the nearest student. Pointing a finger to it, he tacked on, "That's the only one I have, so you'll all have to share! In any case, now that we've had a chance to flex and loosen our acting muscles a bit, onto a slightly more challenging game…"

Wonderful! Now I could put this horrible improv portion of the class behind me. I wondered what would be next… monologues or scene work or script readings or-

"Alphabet Improv!"

...or _more_ improv.

Swell.

You know what? Maybe acting class just simply wasn't for me. Since, you know, it seemed to be nothing but improv, a thing that I was _terrible_ at.

...to be fair, one might argue that acting class would be the way to help me get better at it.

On the other hand, one might also argue to _hell_ with acting class!

Not going to lie, I felt that the latter argument made a _very_ compelling and well thought out rebuttal.

"We'll be doing this in groups of four," Professor Trouillefou went on, a wicked grin slowly stretching across his face. "And just for funsies, _I'll_ be the one picking the groups. Now, who will start us off…"

Not me, not me, oh dear _god_ , not me!

He pointed that cursed jingly stick directly at - you guessed it - me. I paled, my heart plummeting into my stomach as he decreed, "Congratulations, my dear, you are our first lucky winner!"

...fudge.

Gulping, I stuttered out in a tiny voice, "No, b-but I… I can't-"

"Oh, but you _can_ and you _will!_ Next up, your partners will be… hmm…" he pursed his lips to one side as he scrutinized everyone else.

Lea's hand shot up high over his head as he bounced on the balls of his feet.

"Kuzco!" the lecturer jabbed his scepter towards the opposite end of the line of students from us.

A guy with long black hair jumped forward with a cocky laugh, "Boom, baby!"

Right. Guess that'd make him Kuzco.

The teacher slowly swung the jingly scepter past the students one by one, preparing to select his next victi- erm, _participant_. Lea kept jumping in front of it like an eager puppy, saying, "Oo! Oo! Me!"

Jerking the prop to Lea's immediate left, it landed on a short girl in a white sundress trimmed in black lace, her red hair tied back into a pair of pigtails that fell past her waist. "Strelitzia!" he cried, seemingly taking great joy in rolling the R as he did so.

She merely smiled sweetly at her name being called and stepped forward.

"And last but not least…" Professor Trouillefou squinted as he gave his students another once over. Lea bounced up in front of him yet again, both index fingers pointing up at his own face as he favored the teacher with a big, ear-to-ear smile. Rolling his eyes with a small huff, the teacher grumbled, "Fine. You, I guess."

Oh, thank goodness!

Don't get me wrong, this game was still going to absolutely _murder_ me.

But with Lea's help, maybe it'd be just a tad _less_ murdery.

As my boyfriend moved to stand beside me, taking my hand with a squeeze and a grin, the professor made a sweeping gesture with his prop, "Everyone else step aside and give our stars center stage! Now, Alphabet Improv is quite simple really. I'll give you four a scene prompt and a letter. Then one of you will begin with a line that starts with that letter. The next person will continue the scene by saying something that starts with the next letter of the alphabet. You will each take turns working your way through the alphabet until you're back around to the first letter, then work your way backwards through the alphabet."

I think he had more to say, but his words began to fade to the point where I couldn't hear them anymore. No, all I could hear now was the hammering in my ribcage and hiss of my rapid, shallow breathing through my nostrils. My mouth was dry and my hands were clammy. Yup. No doubt about it. This was anxiety. And not the good kind like I usually felt before a show. This was just plain bad. _All_ bad. Nothing but bad, bad, _bad_. So bad that-

"Nervous?"

I gave a start as that soft voice broke through my thoughts, my head whipping towards it to discover the girl from earlier - Strelitzia, I believe - now standing next to me. She tilted her head to one side, grinning warmly at me.

A scoff from Kuzco had me jolting in surprise yet again. "Psh, like she has reason to be! Not with _me_ in the group! Just simply bask in the awesomeness and perfection that is me and be at ease!" he smirked, puffing out his chest and stretching his arms out wide, curling and uncurling his fingers a couple times. "Go on, bask. You know you want to."

Lea snerked. "Check out the ego on this guy."

Heh… look who's talking.

"Just ignore him, that's what the rest of us do," Strelitzia giggled softly before turning her kind eyes on me once more. "And don't worry, I was nervous too when I first started taking this class. I still am, actually… but I've gotten better. Some day, I hope to be as good as my brother!"

Lea blinked. "Brother? Wait a minute…" he squinted down at her, rubbing a curled finger over his chin. Then he snapped his fingers. "You're Bubble Yum's baby sis!"

Her eyes widened at that, then she laughed, "Oh dear, don't let Marluxia hear you calling him that."

"Too late," Lea shrugged.

"But yes, he's my big brother. He's majoring in Theater Arts here, while I'm just taking this class because I want to be a little more like him. He's so confident and brave…" she trailed off shyly into a thoughtful pause. Then her face brightened, "I just wish I had a little more courage so I can make him proud of me! I think this class has helped me a lot with that, and it could help you too."

I think this girl was about to give me diabetes from sweetness overload here. It was almost enough to lure me into a false sense of security. _Almost_. But then-

_Jingle-jangle!_

Ugh, those damn little bells were going to be the death of me! Immediately, my pulse spiked and I inhaled sharply.

"Now that you've all had a lil time to get acquainted, let's move this along, shall we?" Professor Trouillefou beamed from where he'd taken a seat at the edge of the stage to watch us. The rest of the class had done the same, giving the four of us plenty of room to work with. Oh gosh, so many eyes on me, about to witness my epic failure at improv. Was it getting harder to breathe in here? "The letter you'll be beginning with: Q!"

I started desperately tugging at Lea's hand and he glanced down at me. "I can't do this," I told him in a whisper, the loudest I could muster through my constricting throat. "I can't… I just can't!"

"The scene," the lecturer went on, "...Kuzco here has just been transformed into a talking llama!"

Lea stepped in front of me, taking both my hands in his and drawing light circles along their backs with his thumbs. The sensation sent a soothing warmth up my arms and into my chest where it clashed with the icy panic pumping out of my heart. Ducking down to my eye-level, he said, "It'll be okay, El. I'll be right here with ya the whole time. You got this, trust me! Don't think, just say the first thing that pops outta your head. Simple as that!"

"But-"

"Annnnnnd action!" Professor Trouillefou roared.

Kuzco wasted no time, turning to the three of us. "Quick question guys…" he held his hands up and waved them back and forth in front of him with a chipper, "Why do I suddenly have hooves?" That earned him a few tiny chuckles from the students watching.

Fighting a smile herself, Strelitzia gasped, "Randy! You're a llama!"

"Sweet! New pet!" Lea went over to start patting Kuzco on the head. "Think I'm gonna name him Cheez Whiz." A few more snorts from onlookers.

Then there was dead silence.

...that was my cue, wasn't it? Crud, what comes after S again?! How do you alphabet?! I couldn't remember! So instead I just stood there, stock-still and rooted to the spot, hyperventilating and my eyes round as I stared out into our small audience.

...do... _something…_

What was it Lea had _just_ told me? Don't think, er...

Don't think, just… uh…

…

Well I'll say this much for me - I had the 'don't think' part down pat. I was totally not thinking like a pro! Nothing was going on in my brain right now. Nope, not a goddamn single thing. Not even so much as a tumbleweed rolling through the barren wasteland that was my thoughts at this very second.

"This has ruined my face! My beautiful, beautiful face!" Kuzco suddenly burst out, covering for me.

Ah! T! _That's_ what comes after S!

Dang it, I _knew_ that!

Strelitzia hesitated for only a split second before coming up with, "Um... your face was never really all _that_ beautiful to begin with…" There were a couple snickers from our audience at that.

"Veronica!" Lea suddenly grabbed me by the shoulders, forcing me to look at him instead of the people watching us. "Tell us, what should we do?!" His thumbs were stroking up and down my arms as he gave me a single, encouraging nod.

I tucked in my bottom lip, listening to a couple pounding beats of my heart before giving him a tiny, almost imperceptible shake of my head.

Still nothing going on up in the ol' noggin except for crickets and paralyzing, soul-crushing fear. Sorry, bud.

Then I realized his lips were silently moving… was he mouthing something to me? Looked suspiciously like… W...?

Oh! Right! The next letter!

Now I just needed to think of a word that started with W! Simple, right?

"W…" I began shakily sounding it out, hoping the rest of some word would just magically follow. "W…" Mm-hm, yup. "W…" Got nothing here. "W…" Absolute zilch.

Apparently that was deemed acceptable. "Xavier, can't you see she's petrified cuz I'm an ugly, stinky llama?!" Kuzco wailed as he fell to his knees.

"You have a point there!" Strelitzia chimed in, struggling to keep a straight face now at his overdramatic antics.

Lea smacked himself in the forehead, "Zounds, can't believe I forgot about her crippling llama-phobia!" … _llama-phobia?_ At that, a tiny snerk managed to break through the all but suffocating anxiety and escape through my nose. Then he was grabbing my face with both hands, "But it's okay, you'll get through this! ...you'll get through this." The last part was repeated more softly as he gave me a small reassuring smile.

Something in his touch, his voice, his steady gaze… _actually_ had me calming down a bit. With a tiny gulp, I closed my eyes, breathed in deeply and exhaled slowly, letting some of the tension go with it. Alright, after Z came… ha! Yes! So easy, even my useless, panic-scattered brain could do it!

"A…" I began weakly, but then hesitated.

_Don't think, just say the first thing that pops outta your head._

"Alpacas!" suddenly exploded from my lips as my eyes snapped open again. Lea's head rocked back slightly at my little outburst, a bemused grin tugging at his lips. Gaze shifting, I scrambled to expand on it. "Don't, um… don't forget I'm... d-deathly afraid of those too..."

Kuzco was quick on the draw, snarling, "Both of you shut up and help me fix this already!"

"Can it!" Strelitzia snapped, planting her fists on her hips and narrowing her eyes on him. "We're not taking orders from you!"

Lea stamped a foot down and raised his fist at him, "Damn right, you demon llama!"

That statement had me hiding a smile behind my fingers. And with that, a little bit more of the anxiety was banished. I could do this… especially now that I'd regained the power of the alphabet! Especially with Lea's hand finding mine once again, sending more warm tingles straight to my heart.

_Don't think, just say the first thing that..._

"Everyone, let's…" Okay, good strong start. Now, where are we taking this? "...exorcise?" Sure, let's go with that. "...the, uh... the demon llama?"

Success!

"Fiends!" Kuzco yelled, pointing an accusing finger at us. "Traitors! Evil criminal masterminds! This was your plot all along, wasn't it?!"

Turning to look up at Lea, Strelitzia told him, "Go on, say the words that'll expel the evil spirit!"

Not missing a beat, Lea joined Strelitzia's hand with mine before taking my other back in his once again. Then he led us into a skipping daisy-chain that circled Kuzco a couple times, all the while happily chanting, "Hocus pocus! Shazam! Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo! Nutella! Benedict Cumberbatch!"

This was all just so... utterly… _ridiculous_.

I spluttered, then erupted into full blown laughter.

Oh gosh, how did Lea always do it? How did he always know how to get a laugh out of me, no matter what? How did he always manage to calm me down and help me feel safe?

As he slowed our skipping to a stop, his eyes crinkled down at me as he prompted, "That oughta do it! Whatcha think?"

Ah. Right. I was supposed to be doing something… or saying _something_ … something to do with the letter I. But I couldn't quite remember what. I was too distracted by his gaze on me, causing all sorts of warm fuzzies to flutter throughout my chest and an _extremely_ silly smile to pull at my mouth. Alright, letter I… letter I… my lips parted...

_Don't think, just…_

"I love you."

The words had barely left my mouth when my whole body locked up and I swear my heart skipped two full beats as Lea's wide-eyed stare landed on me.

Crud.

That… had _not_ been part of the game.

I knew it.

He knew it.

Everyone in the whole goddamn _theater_ seemed to know it too.

That is, if the awkward, deafening hush now permeating the air as no one said or did anything was an indicator. Several eyes just slowly shifted back and forth between Lea and me, probably curious to see what either of us would do next.

Lea was the first to recover, snagging my hand in his. "Excuse us for a quick sec," he struck up a finger to the others, flashing a polite smile. Then he walked off backstage, gently tugging me along behind him. My knees had gone numb, causing me to stumble a couple times as I followed. I frowned at his back, feeling my insides shrivel with dread.

...oh gosh, he was about to break up with me, wasn't he?

Neither of us had ever said… said… gah, the _L-word_ to each other before! And I'd been _okay_ with that! I'd been just fine! I didn't even know whether I was in L-word with him or not!

Or rather… I _hadn't_ known...

...but I guess I did now?

Apparently?

Not that _that_ mattered any more! Not now that my stupid mouth had gone and screwed everything up! Lea wasn't the L-word type! He was the one-night stand type. This thing he'd been doing with me this whole time had been a one-off. A fluke. A wonderful fluke. An _amazing_ fluke. A fluke that I had just totally and completely ruined.

It seemed he'd found a spot he deemed quiet and private enough, for we abruptly came to a stop. As he turned to face me now, I swallowed hard. This was it. He was about to tell me it was all over. My vision blurred slightly and I squeezed my eyes shut against it.

Maybe if I couldn't see him, he couldn't break up with me. Ha! Take that!

...okay, that sounded a bit desperate, even for-

My thoughts were silenced as I suddenly felt his arms wrapping around my waist, hugging me tightly up against him. Then there was the familiar scent of cinnamon before I felt his warm lips on mine, causing my eyes to fly open and my hands to unconsciously grip at the front of his shirt.

Wha-

...oh. Wait, no I get it. He was trying to let me down easy. This was a _goodbye_ kiss. One final kiss for the road. The kiss of relationship death.

Yup. This sealed it. He was _definitely_ breaking up with me.

All too soon, his lips were pulling away from mine, although he didn't release his hold on me. I couldn't look him in the eye. I was too scared. So I just stared hard at his collarbone instead and waited for him to say it. _It's over between us._ Just go on and get it over with already. Put me out of my misery. It won't be hard. Just four little words. Just-

"I love you too."

I blinked.

Okay… not the four words I'd been expecting...

I slowly dragged my gaze up to meet his, giving him a blank look. "...this has to be the most confusing breakup ever."

I felt his body tense against mine as both his eyebrows shot up his forehead. "Break up?" he repeated incredulously. Then a laugh burst out of him and he shook his head, "How did you even-? No, El, this isn't a break up! I mean, I certainly _hope_ not anyway."

"Oh." Well that was a relief! But then my brow furrowed. "Wait…"

...back up… had he really just said he-

My heart flip-flopped and face glowed red hot.

"...you…" Dear lord, it was so hard to even say it. The struggle was real. "...love me?"

"Mm-hm!" he hummed, squeezing me closer and nuzzling his nose into my neck. "Known for a while too."

His breath tickled against my skin and I squirmed, my arms inadvertently wrapping around his neck now. "You did? Why didn't you say anything?" The question came out almost somewhat indignant.

Raising his head so he could once more look me in the eye, Lea gave a sheepish chuckle. "Didn't wanna spook ya or make you feel pressured into saying it back if you weren't ready."

"Well that's…" I paused, my mouth clicking shut as I looked down to mull it over for a second. Then my gaze shyly lifted once more and I mumbled, "...a fair point. And actually kind of thoughtful… thank you…"

His expression softened and he pressed his forehead to mine. "...say it again."

This time, my heart skipped _three_ full beats. He wanted me to say… _that_ again?! What, once hadn't been enough? I didn't even know if I _could_ say it again. I didn't even know how I'd said it in the first place! "I…" Oh gosh, how did couples tell each other this all the time? There had to be some trick to it. What was the magic secret? "I… I'm not like you, Lea. I'm not sappy and mushy and… and I know how to do corny stuff like giving romantic speeches about lantern festivals or walking into lampposts or-"

"I don't want a speech. I just want to hear you say it again...please..." he coaxed in a low murmur against my ear, turning my legs to jelly.

Well when he put it that way…

As our eyes locked once more, my pulse raced and I opened my mouth. Then immediately shut it. Nope. Alright, take two. Again, my lips parted. And again, they snapped shut. Gah, this was impossible! Was almost surprised I couldn't smell smoke at this point, considering how badly my cheeks were burning. Finally, I turned my head to one side, gripping at the collar of his leather jacket and pulling it up to hide my face in it as I at last muffled out a quick, "I love you."

He bit back a grin, tugging the collar back down so he could hook a finger under my chin and tilt my gaze up towards his again. "One more time? Couldn't quite hear you."

I wrinkled my nose at him. I couldn't do it. Not with the way those beautiful green eyes of his were watching me with such intensity.

So I did the only thing I could think of.

I clamped my hand over them, blinding him and blurting out before I could stop myself, "I love you!"

He stiffened. Then snerked, letting my hand stay put over his eyes as a huge, dopey grin spread across his face, "Love you too. And eagerly awaiting the day when I can look at you while you say that."

Despite feeling flustered, one corner of my lips lifted. "...yeah, well... you might be waiting a while there."

Now he removed my hand from his face, weaving our fingers together and pressing a kiss to my palm before clasping it to his chest just over his heart as he smiled down at me.

"Take all the time ya need. I know it'll be worth the wait."

...maybe acting class wasn't so bad after all.

I mean, if only _one_ session had helped me get _this_ far...

...just imagine what I might be able to accomplish after completing the entire course!

* * *

_**Author's Note:** _ _Relationship milestone, woooo! Achievement unlocked! xD Not sure if ya'll even realized that these 2 dorks had yet to say those three lil words each other :P Like Lea said, he's known for a while - the goob might've even fancied himself in love back while they were fake dating - maybe it was still just really strong infatuation back then, but eh... does it really matter? xD As for Elsa, she's been in love for a while now too, she just didn't KNOW that's what it was until her mouth did what it does best, took the reins and blurted out her feelings for her XD On another note, yay for Elsa exploring theater further and pursuing acting classes! Hehe, these bonus chapters are quickly turning into an excuse to squeeze as many cameos in as I can. The professor was originally supposed to be a smaller, faceless part but then I came to the conclusion that I should have more fun with it and tried to figure out who would be good fit for a drama teacher - I think I made the right call with Clopin xD In case anyone didn't recognize him even with all the lil hints I dropped, he's the jester guy from "Hunchback of Notre Dame" which I wouldn't blame you if you read the name and went "uh…who?" - the guy only says his name once in the whole movie and it does legit sound like it has 4 syllables when he says it! My whole life (right up until I looked it up for this chapter) I've thought his name was something like "Cleopelle" haha oops xD And I'm glad I found a place to squeeze in Strelitzia at long last! Not to mention Kuzco - fun fact, he was originally gonna be Selphie, but this was before I came up with the scene prompt for the Alphabet Improv bit. I was looking up acting class prompt suggestions on the internet before I was like "screw it, I should just pick the plot of a Disney movie or something", started scrolling through the long list of Disney movies until I landed on "Emperor's New Groove", stared at it blankly for few seconds, then DING! Off went the lightbulb, Selphie was yeeted out of the scene, and Kuzco bounced in to take her place x'D Also, yes, both Stroking the Animal and Alphabet Improv are real drama class exercises - I know this from WAY more time than I care to admit spent on the internet trying to figure out what I wanted to happen this chapter xD Stroking the Animal is also sometimes called Ironing the Animal, but (1) I don't even understand that title and (2) Lea couldn't have made his dumb innuendo if I'd called it that xD_

_Thank you so much for reading, especially to those of you who have left a kudos and shared with me your thoughts and feelings on this story so far! Remember, feedback is not only welcome, but highly encouraged and super appreciated!_

_Be back for next week's bonus chapter, which is a for funsies one-shot! Your hint this time for what's to come will be *drum roll*... blindfold ;D Ooooo, the intrigue is real! Stay tuned!_


	34. Chapter 34

Lea gave a low thoughtful hum as he zipped up the back of my dress. "Well lessee here… the sound of dry leaves crunching under my shoes… the smell of movie theater popcorn… that specific shade of deep red the sky turns at sunset…" A brief pause and another quiet hum as he gently finger-combed and played with my hair, eliciting a small shiver from me. "Oh! Let's not forget the feel of the first breeze of summer warming my skin."

My eyelids drooped as I shot a look over my shoulder at where he sat at the edge of his bed in skinny jeans and topless. "...I was more looking for things you liked that maybe, sort of… had a price tag?"

He chuckled, his arm hugging my waist from behind, pulling me back towards him so he could press a kiss to my shoulder. "Trynta figure out what to get me for my birthday, hm?"

"Now whatever would give you a silly idea like that?" one corner of my lips tugged up as my hand covered his, toying with his fingers. "Perhaps I was simply making polite and completely theoretical small talk."

"Oh-ho, I see. Well if you were _theoretically_ fishing for gift ideas for the birthday boy, how 'bout this?" A tiny yelp escaped me as he suddenly yanked me backward, my spine hitting the mattress. He hovered over me now in all his shirtless glory, his hands finding mine as he pinned them to the bed to either side of my head. Smirking down at me with hooded eyes, the tip of his nose brushed mine and his breath warmed my lips as he purred, "You. Me. Locked in my room from dawn to dusk while I just worship every last inch of your body."

Face warming, I looked away, pressing my cheek to his comforter as I gave a small scoff. "This is for _your_ birthday, not mine, remember?"

He did not hesitate to take advantage of the easier access I'd just given him to my throat, nibbling down it. "Funnily enough, I was actually thinking the exact same deal for your birthday as well. It's a win-win for both of us, really."

I cleared my throat, trying not to get distracted as he teeth now lightly nipped at my earlobe. "Come on, there's got to be something you want besides just… _that_."

"Honestly?" he pulled back a bit and my gaze met his once more as he playfully waggled his eyebrows. "Getting to see you naked is the second greatest gift you could give me."

Snorting, I narrowed my eyes up at him suspiciously. "...what would be the first then?"

Lea nuzzled our noses together as he cooed, "Your love," before capturing my lips with his.

I laughed against his mouth, breaking the kiss. "Have I mentioned what a sap you are?"

"Mm, it may of come up once or twice," he nodded solemnly before burying his face into the side of my neck again, only this time to blow a raspberry. I gasped and spasmed under him, managing to free one of my hands so I could swat at his shoulder. This only seemed to encourage him to do it again as his chest rumbled in amusement. But then his whole body deflated on top of mine as he released a soft, grumbling sigh. "Damn this motherfucking econ exam I hafta take today. I'd call in sick in a heartbeat if it wouldn't flunk me outta the whole course for missing it." With a groan, he planted a quick peck to my forehead before reluctantly pushing himself up off the bed and onto his feet as he began a hunt for a clean shirt.

Sitting up myself, my fingers set to work weaving my pale hair into a loose braid. "Seriously, I need ideas for what to get you."

"Seriously, I know you'll figure out something awesome on your own." He grabbed a tee that was hanging from the brim of his hamper, giving it a quick sniff. Guess it passed the smell test, for he then tugged it on over his head. The front bore a circle with a curved grid, yellow on the inside with a thick red ring border and large, bold but faded text wrapping around it proclaiming, _THE POWER IS YOURS!_ Then he grinned big at me, "I mean, the first gift ya ever got me was perfect after all!"

My brow furrowed. "...my first gift?"

I'd gotten him something before?

Since when?

Both eyebrows reached for his hairline and he dramatically clutched at his chest. "Don't tell me you forgot about Bubbles!"

Um…

"...Bubbles?"

He snerked then moved over to one of his tall, cluttered bookcases where he plucked something from the top shelf - a spot of honor, no doubt - before holding it out in front of me. "Bubbles," he repeated by way of explanation.

In his hands was the toy from Wandering Oaken's Trading Post - the orca robot with a machine gun. A little derisive huff blew out my nose as I took it from him. "This? It doesn't count as a gift. I didn't even pay for it."

"Ya tried to. Not your fault if the cashier let it go for freesies." Snatching one of his Converse up off the floor, he started hopping up and down on one foot as he tugged it onto the other before setting to work tying it. "'Sides, spending munny doesn't necessarily make something a gift. Some of the best presents out there can't be bought in a store."

"But I didn't even pick this out for you," I continued to argue with a small sour twist to my lips. " _You_ did."

Finished donning both his shoes now, he snagged his messenger bag off its wall hook and started hastily stuffing it with whatever supplies he'd need for his test. "But you saw that I liked it, thus ya got it for me. That right there was some superb gift decision-making! And I'll have you know outta everything in this room, it's my most favorite."

I wrinkled my nose and frowned down at the cheap toy in my hands. "...really?"

"Mm-hm! 'Cept for you, of course!" he chirped, bending forward and bracing his hands on the bed to either side of me as he pressed his lips to mine. I rolled my eyes but bit back a grin as he straightened back up. "And I have the utmost faith that you'll be able to find something else I like without even breaking a sweat, babe. 'Sides, whatever it's gonna be, I'll love it no matter what cuz it'll be from you!" Slinging his bag strap over his head to hang across his chest, Lea unplugged his phone from the charger and pocketed it. Then he squinted up at the ceiling and tapped a curled finger to his lips before snapping his fingers, "Ah! Mustn't forget Marshmallow!"

He crossed his bedroom to open the door only to be immediately greeted by the sight of Saïx standing on the other side. In his arms was the big ball of white fluff in question, poofy tail enthusiastically wagging as his tongue lapped away at Saïx's chin. The show of puppy-dog affection did not seem to be wholly appreciated, if Saïx's dull scowl was any indicator.

"Oh! Heh… mornin', big guy!" Lea said brightly. "Thanks for keeping an eye on the pooch last night! Hope the lil furball didn't give ya too much tr-"

His words were swallowed in a grunt as Saïx just shoved Marshmallow into his chest, then wordlessly turned to stalk off into his bedroom, slamming the door shut behind him. Eyes fixed on where Saïx had just disappeared, Marshmallow immediately began to whimper and squirm in Lea's arms.

Struggling to maintain his hold on him, Lea grumbled, "Aw c'mon, what am I, chopped liver? Where's _my_ doggy smooches? You're _my_ pupper after all!"

Marshmallow's reply came in the form of gnawing on Lea's thumb.

Sighing, he put him down. "I tell ya, Mr D of W, I am _this_ close to kicking your fuzzy ass to the curb where you'll hafta turn tricks for Scooby Snacks just to survive."

The threat fell on deaf ears as Marshmallow came running over to me, demanding attention. I hummed a laugh and reached a hand down to pet him, glancing towards Lea out of the corner of my eye, "I think Saïx is one puppy-sitting session away from murdering _you_ with a Scooby Snack."

"Nah. He puts on a grumpy front, but he loves that lil slobber-factory. I saw the two together last night. There were cuddles. There were snuggles. There were even," here he paused, dropping his voice low for dramatic effect, "...belly rubs."

I mock gasped. "The scandal."

"Right?" Removing the hair-tie that was around his wrist, he handed it to me before nudging Marshmallow over to make room and plopping down on the floor himself, using my knees as a backrest as he tucked his feet in under him to sit cross-legged. As I set to work running my fingers through his hair and gathering all his crimson spikes together, he went on, "Now I should only be gone a few hours. Dog food's under the sink in the kitchen and the lil fellah will probably wanna go for walkies soon. Bruni's already gotta full belly so all good there, but some time outta the terrarium might be nice and-"

"I know all this already. This isn't my first time watching them, you know," I snorted, finishing his ponytail and pressing my lips lightly to the top of his head to let him know I was done.

"Sorry, can't help it. I just take my responsibilities as a pet dad very seriously," he chuckled, standing up once more and spinning around to smirk down at me. "Unlike _some_ people who strangle imaginary animals during acting class."

My hand shot out to pinch him, but he hopped back out of my reach with a laugh. I huffed, "Don't you have a test to be getting to?"

"Yeah, yeah. But first," he braved stepping closer to me once more, eyes crinkling as he reached down to take my hands in his, "c'mere and gimme some sugar, sweet thang." I let him pull me up to my feet as he brought my hands up to clasp behind his neck. Then he slipped his arms around my waist, pulling me close for a kiss.

Marshmallow circled our legs with a small growl. Pulling away, Lea stuck his tongue out at the dog, "Don't be jelly. I saw her first." Then he was turning a soft smile towards me, cupping my cheek with his hand as he rested his forehead against mine and murmured, "I love you."

Still wasn't used to hearing that. Still wasn't used to the way it made my heart jolt nor the explosion of butterflies it set off in my stomach. And _definitely_ still wasn't used to saying it back.

And so…

_Clap_.

The sound of my hand flying up to cover his eyes.

"El, c'mon," Lea pouted.

My lips pursed to one side. After some hesitation, I slowly pivoted my hand so it was only over _one_ of his eyes now.

It helped. Don't ask me why or how. It just did.

As he blinked it open and half his green gaze settled on me, my face grew uncomfortably hot as I mumbled, "Love you too."

There it was again. That big, dorky grin. "There ya go! Progress! Now I only hafta be a pirate for you to tell me that, yar!" Planting a swift peck to my cheek, he released me and headed towards the door. "Gotta run, wish me luck!"

"Good luck," I smiled after him as he closed the door.

Save for the sound of Marshmallow happily panting away from his seat next to my feet, the room fell abruptly quiet.

For a grand total of two seconds.

Then-

The door banged open and in Lea rushed once more. I tipped my head to one side, "Did you forget-"

He took me in his arms and dipped me backwards, kissing me long and slow and deep. I was breathless when he at last broke it off and straightened us both back up. "Kay, bye for real this time," he winked before bolting out the door, clicking it shut behind him again.

Fighting the upward pull I felt at one side of my mouth, I ran my hands down my dress to smooth the nonexistent wrinkles out and cleared my throat.

Right. Back to the matter at hand.

That matter being I still had no clue what to get Lea for his birthday.

Since the boy himself had been absolutely zero help, it might only be natural to assume the next best step would be to ask his closest friends and family. But Saïx had just gone to bed and as nice as he could be during his regular awake hours, the thought of disturbing him while he was just settling in to get some sleep seemed like a bit of a deathwish. Ruling him out for the moment, I supposed the next best options would be Xion and Roxas, but…

Was it wrong for me to feel so… _self-conscious_ about going to them for present ideas? I mean, I was the girlfriend after all. Wasn't it my job to know these things? Shouldn't his friends be the ones coming to _me_ for advice on what to get Lea, not the other way around? I know it was totally silly, but I couldn't help but feel embarrassed for not just… _automatically_ knowing the answer. I simply wasn't quite ready to put my shame on display like that in front of his friends. Not just yet, at least.

Luckily, there was another I could turn to without any fear of judgement.

"So tell me," I began conversationally as I crouched down next to the terrarium, one elbow propped on my knee as I cradled my chin in my palm, "of the three of us in this room right now, you've known Lea the longest. What would _you_ suggest I get for him?"

Bruni blinked back up at me. Then lashed his tongue out and flicked it over his eyeball.

I gave a soft snerk at that. "That's just your answer to everything, isn't it?" I sighed, straightening back up to my full height and setting the enclosure's lamps aside before opening it and reaching inside. Scooping the little salamander up, I turned and walked back towards the bed, Marshmallow trotting along behind me with his tail going a mile a minute.

"It's just… well, you know how Lea is," I told Bruni as I took a seat on the mattress and rested my head back into the pillows. "So impulsive… anytime he sees something he wants, he just buys it on the spot. It makes it very hard to find something he'll like that he hasn't already purchased himself."

As I stroked the reptile's head with a fingertip, a whimper from next to the bed drew my attention down to Marshmallow, who was staring up at me with forlorn puppy eyes. Smiling, I pat my free hand to the blankets. Needing no further invitation, the pup sprung up onto the bed and flopped his full weight down onto my belly, forcing a small grunt out of me. Making a noise that was half wheeze, half laugh, I said, "Marshmallow, I think you're getting too big for that."

He tilted his head at me with a tiny huff and doggy frown.

"Oh, well then, my mistake. Consider the comment withdrawn," I grinned softly, my fingers scritching behind his ear. The grin slowly faded however as I shifted my gaze up towards the ceiling. "...I suppose I've just never really been a fan of the whole gift giving thing. Don't get me wrong, I like the _idea_ of giving something to someone you care about that you'll know they'll love. It's everything else _around_ it that I dislike… the agonizing over hundreds of options in search of the _perfect_ gift, the uncertainty that comes with finally making a decision of whether it was even the right one, the anxiety as they open the gift and the fear of a negative reaction… and even _after_ all that's finally over and done with, there's a lingering wonder of if they even _really_ liked the present or if they just said they did to spare your feelings when really they were disappointed with the absolute crud you gave them…"

When the only response I received was a soft snuffling noise, I glanced back down to see Marshmallow curiously but gently sniffing at Bruni. Nothing to be concerned over. Marshmallow had long ago learned that Bruni was friend, not food. Still, my eyelids drooped, "Hey, you even listening to me?"

Puffing out a low snort through his snoot, the dog blinked up at me.

"That's better," I lightly tapped his nose before depositing Bruni on top of his head. As the salamander began to explore his new white, fluffy terrain, the dog hardly seemed to notice or mind as he just rested his chin on my chest. Idly ruffly the fur at his cheek, I muttered, "Then of course there's also what to even _do_ for his birthday. I mean, Xion and Roxas have that surprise party planned, but that doesn't start until mid-afternoon, so it's up to me to keep Lea busy until then. And not just busy… I want to do something _nice_ for him. Something he'll really like." My teeth gnawed at my bottom lip. "...I mean, I've already made plans for something… and I _think_ he'll enjoy it, but I don't know. It's so simple… maybe _too_ simple… maybe he'll think I put little to no thought into it because I didn't really care enough…"

Marshmallow yawned deeply, lazily licking his chops while Bruni graced me with the sight of his tail-end as he started crawling down Marshmallow's back.

"Oh, I'm sorry, am I _boring_ you two?" I chuckled, my hand moving to block Bruni's path before he wandered off too far. Then my face scrunched slightly before I conceded with a nod, "But you're right. I've made a decision there already. It's done, so no use second-guessing myself over it. My time and energy would be better spent on what I _haven't_ figured out yet: the present."

Settling Bruni back on his throne - aka the spot between Marshmallow's ears - I then reached over for Bubbles, picking it up from where I'd left it lying on the mattress. I held the little robot up in front of my face, squinting at it. Lea had called it a great present, but…

_...why?_

"Reveal unto me your hidden and untold wisdom on picking the perfect gift, oh great and powerful plastic one," I implored Bubbles.

The toy just stared blankly back at me and remained stoically silent.

My eyes narrowed. "Fine then. Keep your secrets."

...was I really resorting to asking an inanimate object for advice now?

I really was hopeless.

But I couldn't help it, I was really _that_ clueless when it came to gift giving, _especially_ for a boyfriend. You'd think I'd have years of experience from when I'd dated Hans, but gifts between him and me had never really… _mattered_. There had never been any substantial meaning behind the presents, no real sentiment… it'd just been stuff like the most expensive, latest model of wristwatch for him, or some fancy, glittery bit of jewelry for me. It'd all been about putting on a show of looking like a happy couple, just like everything else had always been between us. But for Lea, I actually cared about getting something he'd like. I just really didn't want to screw this up. I just… I wanted to make him happy.

"Ugh, maybe I _should_ just cave and ask Roxas and Xion for help," I grumbled under my breath.

Marshmallow snored, apparently having elected to take a nap.

Bruni had made a break for it and was halfway to the foot of the bed by now. The little fugitive.

Deciding not to disturb Marshmallow until it was absolutely necessary, I let the salamander continue his adventure. If it looked like the little guy was going to take a swan dive for the floor, _then_ I'd leap into action. For now, I just glanced at Bubbles again with a tiny frown. "...what's your deal anyhow?" I whispered. "A firearm-toting, killer-whale-transforming robot must have _some_ sort of story behind it, right?"

Putting the action figure back down on the comforter, I snatched up my phone. Pulling up Google, I pursed my lips to one side as I stared at the empty search bar for a few seconds before deciding the bluntest, most direct course would be best and simply typed in "orca robot with machine gun toy." It actually didn't take long to find exactly what I was looking for and-

My eyes widened and I gasped, sitting up straight and knocking Marshmallow out of his beauty rest with a disgruntled huff.

I knew now.

I knew _exactly_ what to get Lea for his birthday.

* * *

"Now turning down Market Street. And directly on our left, dear sightseers, you'll find a candy store, accessories boutique, and local post office."

"Are you _sure_ you can't see at all?" I grumbled as I stopped Lea's car at a red light, glancing at him dubiously out of the corner of my narrowed eyes.

"Yup!" he chirped, turning his head to look at me. Or rather… not _look_ , seeing as how he was currently blindfolded with a black strip of cloth. "Blinder than a bat with vertigo after a twenty-hour bender at a tequila bar! But I know Twilight Town like the back o' my hand, babydoll! Could navigate these streets with my eyes closed." He smirked, pointing at the blindfold, "As demonstrated."

My lips twisted sourly as the light became green and my foot pressed on the gas.

The day had arrived. His birthday. I was currently chauffeuring him to the destination I'd picked out to kick off celebrating the big day. A destination that was _supposed_ to be a surprise, thus the blindfold. A fat lot a good that was doing though. I muttered, "You should consider getting your own circus sideshow, your recall skills are so freakishly good."

"What can I say, I know how to get it memorized," he declared cockily, poking a fingertip to his temple. "'Sides, never can be too careful. This lil party trick could save my life one day."

I snorted as I checked the rearview. "Sure it could."

He waggled his index finger, "You scoff now, but just you wait. When I get kidnapped but know _exactly_ where my abductors have taken me despite having a sack thrown over my head to keep me in the dark, we'll see who has the last laugh. We'll see," he taunted, pointing two digits at his covered eyes then pointing them at me. Well… more like at the space _in_ _front_ of me, aka the steering wheel. While he had the uncanny ability to pinpoint his own precise location on a map without the use of his vision, it seemed he was a little bit foggier on where exactly _I_ was.

" _When_ you get kidnapped?" I echoed. "Not _if?_ "

"Trust me, it's an inevitability at this point."

A grin tugged at my lips. "...what if your captors take you outside of Twilight Town?"

"Well then, I'm fucked," he shrugged.

"Very well," I hummed a soft laugh. " _If_ someone manages to overpower and get the drop on a behemoth like you, and _if_ they put a bag over your head, kidnap you and throw you in a car, and _if_ they take you hostage somewhere within the city limits... then and only then, in that absurd and oddly specific scenario, will I concede that you _may_ have had a valid point."

"Thank you," he lifted his chin with a lofty sniff. "Oo, now we turn down Station Heights, huh? The plot thickens."

On seeing that the street sign we'd just passed confirmed his words, I said nothing, just growled low in my throat.

He chuckled. "I think we can both agree that _this_ ," his hands reached for his blindfold, tugging at the knot in back, "is really just a formality at this point and is doing jackshit, so may as well just-"

"Ah-ah! Leave it," I snapped, jabbing a warning finger in his direction, even though I knew he (allegedly) couldn't see it.

"Mm, love it when ya get bossy. Your wish is my command, mistress," he waggled his eyebrows with a click of his tongue, hands dropping back into his lap. "Gotta say, El, when ya started off the morning by handing me this thing, I thought today's activities were gonna be lil more hitting the sheets, lil less hitting the streets."

Shifting my grip on the steering wheel, I dropped a casual, "Who's to say that's not the plan for the blindfold later?"

Who me? Trying to distract him from mentally tracking our whereabouts by appealing to his baser urges? I would never!

"Woman, don't tease me if ya don't plan to make good on it."

"Who's to say I won't?" I quirked a cheeky eyebrow.

Lea "looked" towards me again with a toothy, lopsided grin. When he next spoke however, it wasn't to comment on that. Instead, he furrowed his brow and cocked his head. "...be mindful of that tram."

I blinked. "Okay, one, I was nowhere _near_ that thing. And two, pretty sure you're messing with me and can one hundred percent see."

"Nope!" he said brightly before tapping his ear. "Heard the ol' gal chuggin' along. She has a very distinctive thrum. I tell ya, El, take away my sight and I become a regular Daredevil - what I hear is what I see, clear as goddamn day."

"Right," my eyelids drooped.

"Like that! Right there! From the skepticism in that one word alone, I can see the perturbed look on your beautiful face, Love," he cooed, leaning over towards me with lips puckered. Presumably, the intended target was my cheek. Instead, the smooch landed on the headrest of my car seat. He pulled back, "My, how leathery you taste today."

I snorted. "Huh. Must have forgot to moisturize this morning."

"Must've," he agreed. Then, "Hey, ever wonder where totes wackadoodle streets like Where Nothing Gathers Way come from?"

My left eye twitched as we pulled up to a stop sign at that very road. "Streets? As in, more than one?"

Lea beamed, "Oh yeah! There's _loads_ of 'em out there in the world! Don't tell me ya've never heard of the infamous Bucket of Blood Street."

"That's a real street name?" I scrunched up my nose as I flicked on the turn signal.

"Mm-hm!" he nodded. "Over in Arizona. Named after a shootout in the 1800s at a saloon located there. Then of course, if you're lookin' for some class, we can skip our happy asses on over to Vegas and take a stroll down Hanky Panky Street."

I scoffed. "Now I _know_ you're making these up."

"Am not! I'll prove it to ya!" he jammed his hand down his pocket, digging out his phone. I watched out of my peripheral as he swiped the lockscreen away before his thumbs became a blur of typing.

Okay seriously, if he could successfully google this while blindfolded, I'd eat my own braid.

Just as I pressed down on the brakes for a crosswalk, Lea shoved his phone in my face with an all too pleased, "Read 'em and weep, sweetcheeks."

I was greeted by the sight of the search results for a string of characters and numbers that were just a complete mishmash on nonsensical gibberish.

Kudos for actually being able to pull up the search app at all, but I think I could consider my braid safely off the menu.

To him, I just deadpanned, "I stand corrected."

"Bam!" he smugly retracted his phone, moving to sheath it at his hip once more. "Game, set and... shit," he hissed out under his breath as the phone missed his pocket and fell down the crack between his chair and the center console, followed by a muted _thunk_ from somewhere below.

Shifting lanes, I lightly singsonged, "Gone forever."

"You mock - quite cruelly, I might add - but it actually very well _could_ be, " he grumbled, sticking his hand down there after it to blindly fumble around for the thing. "People think the Bermuda Triangle is in the Atlantic, but nope. Nu-uh. It's here, right under my goddamn car seat. You don't even know half the crap that's disappeared down here, never to see the light o' day again."

Alright, I'll bite. "...like?"

"Does the name Amelia Earhart ring a bell?"

"Please," I rolled my eyes with a soft huff, fighting a grin. "There are no historically famous female pilots lost in the black void beneath your car seat."

He razzed his tongue at me, hand still rooting around under his chair. ""Scuse you, but outta the two of us, pretty sure _I'd_ be more the authority on what important figures from history may or may not of gone missing in _my_ car, thank you very much."

Shaking my head, I reached a hand over to gently squeeze at his shoulder. "You can stop, I'll find it for you after we park."

"Spoken like the black hole below's soon-to-be next victim," he harrumphed, giving up on his search and straightening back up in his chair. "Now lessee, where were we?" he muttered, tapping his chin as he "stared" up at the ceiling. Then he brightened, snapped his fingers and pointed at me, "Psychopath."

"Uh…" Both eyebrows shot up my forehead as I slowed for a pedestrian. "...pardon?"

He held up a pair of digits, "Two words. Psycho..." insert pause, "...path. Psycho Path. 'Nother weirdo street name out there."

I tipped my head to one side, one corner of my lips lifting as I drove forward once more. "Okay, that one's pretty clever, actually."

"Right? Definitely _way_ more fun and interesting than dumb, boring ol' Sunset Terrace."

I scowled.

Guess what road I'd just turned the car onto.

Go on, just take one look at Lea's shit-eating grin and guess.

...let's see what we can do about wiping it off that dumb, gorgeous face of his, shall we?

The tires loudly screeched as I made a sharp turn without warning into a massive grocery store parking lot, ignoring the blaring honks from the vehicle I had cut off in the process. Lea yelped as the momentum threw him into his car door. "Crap! The hell?! El, wha-"

I jerked the steering wheel into another hard left and his words were swallowed in a grunt as his shoulder hit his door again. Pressing my lips into a flat, determined line, I said nothing, just zoomed down the parking aisle. Now Lea laughed, "Oh-ho, I see how it is. You're trynta discombobulate me, get me all turned around so I dunno left from right, up from down. Nice try, but I gotta mind like a steel trap, babe. Ya won't get me lost that-"

Another abrupt turn tossed and silenced him.

We'll see about that, bucko. We'll see.

I weaved the car in a high-speed, winding path around the parking lot, making sudden jerky stops here, driving in reverse through empty parking spaces into the next aisle there, just constantly and unpredictably on the move. Lea remained quiet now, a crease forming between his eyebrows just above the blindfold - most likely concentrating on keeping his sense of direction and where we were intact. After a minute or two of this - right about when I saw what looked to be an annoyed employee emerging from the supermarket, probably aiming to put a stop to my recklessness - I maneuvered the car towards a different exit than the one we'd come in through and floored it, propelling us out of the lot and back onto the streets.

"That all ya got?" Lea shot me a half-smirk.

My eyes settled on what was coming up on the road ahead. Then a wicked grin twitched at the corner of my lips. "Hardly. We're just getting started."

That's when I drove the car into the roundabout.

A risky move, yes. There probably weren't a lot of roundabouts in Twilight Town and given his track record thus far, there was a good chance Lea knew every last one of them.

Didn't mean he'd know which direction I'd exit out of it.

Not if I raced around it eight times, anyhow. Or was it nine? Honestly, I'd lost count.

"Devil woman," Lea hissed, bracing one hand on the dashboard and the other to the door, steadying himself against the centripetal force.

My nose crinkled in amusement as we started our tenth (eleventh?) lap. "You like it."

"I really do."

Finally I picked a road at random and turned off the roundabout onto it. From there, I swerved down a few more lanes and side alleys for good measure, hoping to further throw his internal GPS out of whack. At last, I puffed out a sigh as I started driving like a sane person again, glancing towards my phone. The map app (sound muted so Lea wouldn't hear street directions from it) was going a bit haywire trying to adjust and correct course for our destination after that wild ride I'd just taken us on.

Lea chuckled, interlocking his fingers behind his head and leaning back in his seat. "Ya got moxie, kid, I'll give ya that. Tell me, is the rest of Red Nocturne Avenue as in awe of you right now as I am?"

I was _this_ close to smacking his shoulder when I caught sight of the street sign and my hand froze.

This wasn't Red Nocturne Avenue.

This was Dragoon Drive.

...had I really done it? Did he _actually_ not know where we were anymore?

I gave him a sideways squint, holding my tongue as I steered us into a right turn.

"Speechless, huh?" his grin ticked wider. "Yeah, the pure and unadulterated awesomeness that is yours truly has a tendency to do that to the ladies. Not to mention all o' the pretty sights Powerwild Court has to offer."

Wrong again. We were now on Dancer Boulevard.

Smiling as I basked in the glory of my tiny victory, I did my best to mask it with a soft _hmph_. "Fine, you win. Guess there's no fooling you."

"Damn skippy!"

It didn't take much to get us back on track and heading in the right direction again. From there, it was just a few minutes and several more incorrect street names from Lea before we'd arrived at the final address.

"Conduit Way? Really?" Lea arched an eyebrow as I finished parallel parking. "Ain't nothing here but sewage treatment facilities. Babe, I love ya, you know I do, but hate to break it to ya… a tour of one of those icky places isn't exactly my idea of b-day fun."

Luckily for him, we _weren't_ on Conduit Way. I merely smiled, "You'd be surprised. Out… and ah, not yet! Blindfold stays."

His hands dropped from where they'd been trying to remove it again and he just grinned and shrugged before unbuckling his seatbelt and opening his door over the sidewalk. By the time I'd made my way around to his side of the car, he'd managed to climb out without tripping over the curb.

I pressed a quick peck to his cheek before turning and crouching down to start patting my hand around under his chair, trying to locate his phone. My fingers finally bumped into something, closing around it. I frowned.

...whatever it was, it was most definitely _not_ a phone.

I pulled the object out to discover a tiny troll doll with neon pink hair, goggles and a little scarf wrapped around its neck. I held it up to Lea, "And _this_ would be?"

His hands fumbled with it for a second, feeling the thing out before his face lit up. "Amelia Earhart! Ya found her!"

I shot him a small, withering look. Though it was more so only for my benefit, since he couldn't see it. "You're just messing with me. I refuse to believe that it's _actually_ named that."

"You don't know!"

I gave a snort and shook my head as my hand plunged into the dusty shadows beneath the car seat once more. This time I successfully fished out his phone.

"Thanks, boo. Dunno what'd I ever do without ya," he chirped as I handed it to him.

"Probably not be blindfolded and thus dropping your phone in the first place?" I suggested, rising to my feet once more and dusting off my dress.

"Touché." Then he bent down to reward me with a smooch, right smack dab on-

"That was my eyeball, thanks," I deadpanned, screwing my face up a bit as he pulled back.

He beamed. "Meant to do that! Peepers need love too, ya know!"

"I'll take your word for it," I shook my head as one side of my mouth quirked up. Taking the troll doll back from him, I set it on top of the car's dash before closing and locking the car. Then I tucked my hand into Lea's elbow and began leading him over towards the building's entrance. Halfway to those doors, something on the sidewalk caught my attention and my eyes crinkled. "Little to your right," I told him, gently veering him with my grip.

The sharp crunch of brittle leaves being crushed beneath his Converse filled the air. He perked an ear up at the sound, then he flashed his dimples down at me. "D'aaawww, you remembered!" Again, he was ducking down. I think this time the aim had been to press his lips to mine. Instead…

"And I suppose _nostrils_ need love as well?" I half grimaced, half grinned as I swiped the back of my hand across said nostril that had been the unwitting recipient of his affections.

"Absolutely! But what's that?" he cupped a hand to one ear. "...do I detect a note of discontent to my maiden fair's lovely voice? What oh what could the problem be, I do wonder!" Then he snapped his fingers with an evil smirk. "Ah! Not enough tongue. Gotta fix that," he started bowing towards my nose again, mouth open and tongue snaking in and out of it.

A clamped a hand over his whole face and shoved him back, grumbling, "Dork."

"Mm-hm!" he hummed, kissing my palm before freeing his head from my grasp. "And proudly so!"

We reached the entrance and I pulled open one of the doors with my free hand, using the other to tug Lea over the threshold. Once inside, I directed him off to one side so we wouldn't be in other people's way before pulling us both to a complete stop. His head pivoted to and fro curiously, even though the black strip of cloth was still covering his eyes. Then he sniffed the air, "...popcorn?" He cocked one eyebrow then pointed to his blindfold, silently requesting permission.

I bit down on my bottom lip, chilly uncertainty spiking in my chest, tiny but sharp.

This was it.

The moment of truth.

Time to find out if this had been a halfway decent plan or if I should just be crawling under a rock already to die of embarrassment over what a pathetic idea my useless brain had come up with.

I gave him a tentative nod. A full two seconds ticked by before I remembered he couldn't see it. Reaching up to squeeze at my braid, I voiced a small, "Yes."

He untied and removed it, blinking a couple times as his eyes adjusted to the light. Then he glanced around, taking it all in: the massive lobby we stood in now with its walls regally embellished with gold, curly trim. The plush red carpet beneath our feet leading to a wide, old-timey looking concession stand that looked like it'd been yanked straight out of the 50s. The noisy, vintage popcorn maker behind it, paired with a retro yet newly-polished soda pop machine. The black-and-white posters lining the walls boasting popular movies from various decades long past. He squinted at one of those in particular, right between _Giantland_ on its left and _Mickey's Circus_ to its right. "Classic Kingdom Theater?" he read off slowly.

"Mm," I hummed in confirmation, giving my braid one final yank before releasing it and instead fidgeting with the pendent on my necklace. "It's a movie theater, but not a normal one. It only screens old films. Every week, they pick a few from a certain decade to play. This week is the 90s which is apparently the cut-off for what they'll consider a classic, but some weeks they'll have movies from as far back as the 30s."

"This is… How did I _not_ know about this place?" his forehead wrinkled as he glanced over his shoulder towards the glass doors that led back out onto the streets. Then his eyes widened slightly as a lightbulb seemingly flashed in his brain. "Wait… we aren't on Conduit Way. Which means we're… hang on, gimme a sec, I know this place..." Another pause as his eyes swept the room with a thoughtful frown before he tapped the side of his fist into his palm. "Got it. This used to be that defunct and abandoned tram lot warehouse."

Nodding, I said, "It only had its grand opening a little less than a month ago. Apparently some local billionaire bought the place and renovated it into this." I smiled softly, "Looks like there's someone who might quite possibly like the classics more than you, if such a thing is even possible."

"Local billionaire, huh?" he rubbed his chin. "Not a lotta those running around. Betcha it's the same one that owns Le Grand Bistrot."

"And Ice Palace too, I think," I agreed. Then I hesitated, licking my dry lips. "...so… what do you think? ...do you… like it? I hope you like it. I mean, you _should_ like it." I blanched at my word choice, then hastily amended, "N-not that I'm telling you what you _should_ or _shouldn't_ like, I just meant that you, uh… you like… movies." I winced, fingers fiddling with my necklace more frantically. "Of course you like movies. Duh, everyone likes movies. Wait… no, not _everyone_ exactly, I suppose, that's a bit of a broad generalization…"

_Please like it._

"...but what I'm trying to say is that _you_ in particular… you like the sappy classics. Although…" I frowned, tucking in my bottom lip,"...not even sure if they're showing anything sappy this week… but they're still classics, so that's _something_ at least, right? Something you'll… like? Hopefully? Or… was this a bad idea?"

_Please be happy._

" ...what am I saying, of course this was a bad idea," I was quick to answer my own question, saving him the trouble. "Such a bad, awful, uninspired idea. I should have come up with something else. Something to do with… dogs! Because you _love_ dogs. I should have taken you to a dog… _show_. Yes, a dog show. Or… or a _toy_ show, or a… car show? Because you like _your_ car, so you'd like a car _show_ , right? Do they even host car shows in Twilight Town? If they don't, then something else to do with cars, like… go-karts! Yeah, we could've gone to Disney Town Speedway or-"

Lea's hand cupped the nape of my neck, yanking me forward and shutting me up by otherwise occupying my mouth with his.

...fudge, I'd been doing it again, hadn't I? The whole anxiety-fueled rambling thing?

Lea had learned fairly early on in our budding relationship that sometimes this was the only way he could get a word in edgewise.

I gripped at the front of his shirt and he inhaled deeply before finally pulling away, but only by about an inch so he could press his forehead to mine. His fingers brushing my bangs behind one ear, he murmured, "You're right. It was a _huge_ mistake bringing me here."

My heart plummeted and I stared hard down at my feet. I knew it. This had been such a dumb idea. Stupid, stupid, _stupid-_

"Cuz now that I know this place exists, I'm gonna be dragging ya here all the time. So when you inevitably get sick of it, just remember this is all _your_ fault."

My eyes snapped up to meet his, which were crinkling at the corners. "...really? You… actually like it?"

"Like? No. I love it. Thank you for bringing me here, couldn't think of a better way to kick off my birthday," he pressed his lips to the tip of my nose. Then he straightened up, lacing our fingers together with a big grin and tugging me towards where tickets could be purchased. "Now c'mon, let's go find out what flicks you're treating me to."

I snorted, arching an eyebrow, "Wow, you're going to actually let _me_ pay for _you_ for once?"

He chuckled, "Course! Today _is_ Lea Day after all and on this most blessed and holy of days, you're supposta spoil me rotten! Plus, I'm yo date and like I told ya before, I ain't a cheap one. You'll see that for yourself soon enough when we head on over to concessions. Now let's have a look at our options here…" he scrutinized the movie listings overhead. " _Clueless_ … _The Sandlot_ … Oo, _Edward Scissorhands_ …"

I watched him as he idly rattled off a few more movie titles, slightly tipping my head to one side.

...he'd meant it… right?

He actually liked that I'd surprised him with this? He wasn't just saying that to calm me down or so that I wouldn't feel bad? I mean, I guess I never _really_ could be sure when it came to stuff like this and I'd just have to learn accept that and take people's words for it, but-

"Holy shit, _The Mummy_ with Brendan Fraser?! Oh _hell_ yeah!" he excitedly tugged at my hand several times, pointing. "Babe, that's it! That's the one!"

...okay, I actually think I _could_ be pretty sure in this case he was being genuine.

Don't think it would be possible to fake _that_ much enthusiasm for a cheesy action-fantasy blockbuster from the 90s.

A pleasant tingle bubbled inside my chest and I couldn't hide my growing smile as I stepped forward to buy our tickets.

Guess I could consider the morning birthday activity a success.

Now to hope I would do even just half as well on the birthday present later.

* * *

We actually managed to squeeze in seeing two movies, considering we'd gotten there early enough in the morning. Good thing too seeing as how I don't think I would have gotten much say in the matter anyway, not with the way Lea had all but dragged me into _Groundhog Day_ once he'd found out I'd never seen it after we'd exited the first movie. By the time we were finally leaving the theater, it was getting close to 1PM - perfect for lunch. Not that we were starving. We'd both filled up plenty on popcorn and candy, Lea especially. But now we could get something more substantial in our stomachs, or so I'd told him. Thus once we were on the road again, I couldn't help a tiny smile as I checked my phone and confirmed we were right on schedule for-

"Turning off Mako Lane onto Avalanche Street, huh? Must mean it's time for the surprise b-day bash Xion and Rox planned for me at 7th Heaven," Lea clapped and rubbed his hands together, a smirk emerging beneath where the blindfold was tied firmly in place once more.

I heaved a low sigh through my nose but chuckled as I steered his car into the parking lot. "You know what? I'm not even going to fight it anymore. Just please at least try and _act_ surprised when we get inside?"

"Always do!" he flashed his pearly whites.

After pulling his car into a parking space close to the bar and shutting down the engine, we both climbed out. I went to the trunk first, pulling out the present I'd gotten for him - a tall box covered in ice cream print gift wrap. I'd snuck it back there earlier this morning after the blindfold had first been donned. Holding it against my hip, I then took Lea's hand in mine and led him towards 7th Heaven, carefully guiding him up those wooden steps onto the wraparound patio and through the front entrance.

"Golly gee, I wonder where it is you've taken me now, El, cuz I really haven't the foggiest!" Lea announced as we walked in, delivering the line loudly and with all the emotion and believability of cardboard.

My eyelids drooped at him before I shook my head and glanced around. Gosh, Lea had a lot of friends, all of them gathered here right now, shushing each other and struggling to stifle their giggles as they watched us step further into the room. Saïx could even be seen off to one side of the group, looking positively pleased as punch (not) at being included in the festivities - guess his brother's birthday was one of those three days a year he begrudgingly endured daylight. I also spotted Anna and Kristoff, his arm draped around her shoulders as she excitedly yet quietly waved to me from the crowd. It came as little surprise to see Riku and Rayne next to them, along with Kairi and Sora.

And of course, standing front and center of the small mob were the masterminds and orchestrators of this little shindig themselves: Xion and Roxas. I glanced towards them, arching one eyebrow in silent question. Both grinning ear to ear, they nodded their heads rapidly, giving me the okay. Temporarily setting my gift down on the nearest table, I then moved behind Lea and reached up to undo his blindfold. Just as I slipped it off him and his eyes fluttered open-

"SURPRISE!" erupted from every corner of the room accompanied by party blowers and poppers, filling the air with a whole rainbow of streamers and confetti.

Lea dramatically clutched at his chest with both hands, gasped and made choking noises, then fell over backwards, collapsing to the floor with a loud _THUMP!_

I blinked, then squeezed my eyes shut and hung my head with a sigh, pressing my fingertips to the spot between my eyebrows.

For the love of… I'd said to act _surprised_ , you big doofus, not like you'd had a friggin' _heart attack_.

As everyone else around us devolved into laughter and chatter, Roxas's shoulders sagged and he groaned, "Goddamn it, Lea, you knew _again?!_ "

Xion glared at his prone form, stomping over towards him. "This happens every year, you stupid jerk!" she huffed, kicking his foot with hers.

"Rude!" Lea harrumphed, sitting up and crossing his arms as he shot a flat look up at her. "Is that anyway to treat your friend who just suffered cardiac arrest, not to mention is the _birthday_ boy?"

She threw up her hands, so done with him as she turned to walk away, "That's it! No more surprise birthday parties for you since you always ruin them!"

"What?!" He scrambled to stand now and chase after her, "Aw, but I love surprise parties!"

"How would you know, seeing as you've never really _had_ one? Not one that's _actually_ surprised you, anyway," Xion grumbled as she rejoined Roxas and matched the pouty scowl he was shooting at Lea for the double whammy.

"C'mon, kiddos, ya almost had me this year, I swear! No doubt you'll get me good next birthday, I'm sure of it!" Lea did his best to placate them, but judging by the zero change to their sour expressions, they were unmoved. He chuckled sheepishly, rubbing at the nape of his neck for a second before his face brightened as he seemed to recall something. "Hey! Guess who turned up?" he asked them as his hand dove into the pocket of his skinny jeans, pulling out-

"Amelia Earhart!" Roxas's eyes immediately lit up on seeing the troll doll emerge.

Seriously?! Okay, no, I still wasn't buying it. This had to be a bit. The three of them had to have planned the whole silly thing at my expense. There was no way that thing was _actually_ named Amelia Earhart.

"You finally managed to rescue her from the Bermuda Triangle!" Xion laughed, taking the little toy from him.

"Actually, it was El." Just as I had my gift for him in hand once more, he reached back towards me to snag my other hand and tug me forward to join the three of them. Smiling down at me, he went on, "She fearlessly braved the dreaded unknown beneath my car seat, sticking her hand under there and risking life and literal limb to bring our tiny, intrepid heroine home and-" He abruptly stopped mid-sentence, seemingly noticing for the first time that I was carrying something. "Hey, what's that?"

Holding it behind me and out of his sight, I asked innocently, "What's what?"

"You know what," he smirked as he stepped closer to me, bringing us toe-to-toe and invading my personal bubble while he tried to reach around my side for it. "The thing you're hiding behind your back. The suspiciously birthday present shaped thing."

I stretched my arm away, keeping it out of his reach as I grinned back at him, teasing, "Well if it _looks_ like a present and is _shaped_ like a present…"

Crooked smirk twitching wider, he caught me around the waist with one arm, pulling me up against him - all the better to reach the cheerfully wrapped box with, of course. I don't think he was trying all that hard however, not really. His arms were easily longer than mine, so if he really wanted the thing he should've had no problem getting it. And yet I was able to keep it out of his grasp. He didn't seem to mind, his eyes hooding and his lips a breath away from mine as he murmured, "But I thought the blindfold was your gift to me."

I snorted softly at that. "Really? What kind of gift would that be?"

"A _fantastic_ one. Or so you'll find out later tonight," his eyebrows slyly bounced.

"It certainly doesn't take much to make you happy," I crinkled my nose at him, one corner of my mouth curving up.

"It really doesn't," he agreed, pressing a lingering kiss to the hollow where my neck met my shoulder that left a little tingle in its wake while at the same time his hand casually reached for the present again. "Now gimme."

An audible gag at our antics - courtesy of Roxas - reminded me that we weren't alone. As Xion sniggered, I cleared my throat, disentangled myself from Lea's grip and took a step back. "You'll just have to wait and open it up with the rest of your gifts later."

"But-"

"Happy birthday, Lea!" Anna suddenly appeared at my side, clinging to my arm with a giggle and almost making me drop the present.

"You're getting _old_ , Red! How's that social security treatin' ya?" Rayne beamed cheekily as she latched onto my other arm, which _did_ make me drop it. She was quick to catch it for me however and once I had it back, I hugged it protectively to my chest.

Lea scoffed, "I'm not _old_ , ya twerps, I'm-"

"Decrepit, we know!" Roxas supplied, barely ducking in time as Lea took a swat at him and coming back up with an impish gleam in his eye. "Now grab your walker and c'mon, ya old coot, cuz it's time you make your rounds and receive all your birthday punches!"

Fingers waggling as his hands reached for the precious cargo in my arms once more, Lea said, "Be with ya in just a sec, I just wanna-"

Xion stepped forward, putting herself between him and his coveted prize, "But you're the guest of honor! You can't leave all your adoring fans hanging like that, for shame!" She shoved the troll doll into his face, "Amelia and her glorious flamingo hair judge you!"

He snerked at that, brushing the toy aside. "Amelia should learn not to get her non-existent lil panties in such a twist."

The troll immediately snapped back up, nose to teeny, plastic nose with him now as Xion coaxed in a light singsong, "Come with us. You know you want to. You'll be the center of attention." She gave the thing a slight wiggle for emphasis.

"...I _do_ love being the center of attention," he slowly, almost _begrudgingly_ allowed as he glanced past her, still eyeing the gift in my hands.

"We know ya do, big guy," Roxas slugged his shoulder - the first of the aforementioned birthday punches, perhaps? "And just think… the sooner the whole meet-and-greet is done, the sooner there can be cake!"

_That_ caught Lea's full attention. "Cake, you say?"

"Mm-hm! Your favorite, bud: strawberry and sea salt ice cream cake!"

"Well, why didn't ya say so? Musn't keep my public waiting!" Turning to the face everyone else in the bar, Lea grinned big, threw out his arms wide and called out, "Who here's ready to celebrate the birthday boy?!"

The crowd cheered as he strode forward, disappearing into the throng with Roxas hot on his heels. Xion shot me a tiny wink before she went after them. Anna and Rayne - still hooked to either of my elbows - laughed as they spun all three of us around into a rather sloppy about-face and all but charged us towards the presents table, me stumbling to keep up with them.

Once I'd deposited mine with the others, I glanced around 7th Heaven with a small smile. "The place looks great. Do we have it all to ourselves?"

"Yup!" Rayne said brightly as she handed Anna what looked to be a big box of party favors to unpack and distribute. "We've rented it out for the rest of the day and beyond. Trust me, this party is gonna be going until the wee hours of the night."

I crossed my arms as I continued to take it all in. "Roxas and Xion really did a wonderful job with everything."

She quirked an eyebrow at that with an odd little smirk. "Did they now? Like what?"

My head tipped to one side. "Um… well, like the-" I was interrupted by a squeal of delight from Anna, who'd just finished opening the box. She pulled out a brightly colored conical hat with a tinsel poof at the top and swiftly put it on my head. Wincing as the elastic snapped under my chin, I then pointed up at the thing, "Like the birthday hats?"

"I brought those," Rayne grinned, seemingly pleased that they were already such a hit.

"Oh? Well, then the streamers and par-" once again, I got cut off, this time by Anna shoving a party horn in my mouth that furled out and whistled. Rolling my eyes at my sister as she bit back a snerk, I removed the thing and finished, "Party blowers."

"Me as well," Rayne declared chipperly yet also somewhat distractedly as she started rearranging the presents into a more aesthetically pleasing display.

My brow furrowed, then I looked around the room again. "...the decorations?" I asked, pointing to where the giant, prismatic cut-out letters declaring "Happy Birthday!" were strung up across the back wall, surrounded by dancing fairy lights.

"Me yet again."

"Huh… guess that'd explain that one then," I gestured towards where another string of letters were hung, these ones spelling out "It's a boy!" Seemingly as a last minute afterthought, a sheet of bright red construction paper had been taped up between "a" and "boy" with the word "birthday" scrawled across it in sharpie.

Rayne shrugged, patting her swollen tummy, "Bought that before we knew jellybean here was a girl. Had to find _some_ use for the thing!"

A low huff of amusement escaped my nose before I shook my head. "So why did you end up being prime party planner?"

"Why else?" she chuckled. "Practice for my own baby's future birthday parties! I volunteered and Xion and Rox were only too happy to let me take over."

I snorted as Anna continued to pile party favors on me. I was now also sporting several cheap, beaded necklaces, some glow-in-the-dark bracelets, and a pair of comically large sunglasses with lenses that were almost as big as my head. I was basically a walking advertisement for a party store at this point. When Anna had been given the job of distribution, I somehow got the feeling she wasn't supposed to distribute _all_ of it to _me_. Ignoring her for the time being, I said to Rayne, "I don't think throwing a party for your kid and throwing a party for Lea are quite the same thing. Not unless you're planning on giving birth to a fully grown, twenty-six year old man."

She pulled a face at that. "First of all, ouch. Painful. Don't even joke about that. Second of all, pffft, you. Trynta act like your man isn't basically an oversized toddler."

"Hey!" I tried to be indignant for my boyfriend. But then my lips pursed to one side, "...alright no, that's fair." Then I frowned slightly, "Why didn't you tell me you were organizing the whole thing? I could have helped."

"Don't worry about it!" Rayne brushed off. "You had your hands full with keeping him busy for the _first_ half of the day."

"Yeah, keeping him _busy_ ," Anna echoed, suggestively waggling her eyebrows as she slipped a "Party Girl" plastic headband onto my head behind the birthday hat.

I narrowed my eyes at my sister. I think the humongous sunglasses made it lose its impact however. "I took him to the _movies_."

"Is _that_ what the kids are calling it nowadays?" Rayne sniggered with a wicked smirk. "Well I'll be taking Riku _to the movies_ ," she made air quotes with her fingers, "later tonight, if ya know what I'm saying. Taking him to the movies _all_ night long."

Ew.

TMI, Rayne. TMI.

"What about the movies?" Riku (speak of the devil) grinned at his wife as he walked past carrying a box of what would presumably be more party supplies, slowing to a stop beside her.

"Nothing, hon. You'll find out later," she winked at him, planting a kiss on his lips.

A slow grin spread across his face as he murmured back, "Alright, looking forward to it." Then he turned to call back over his shoulder, "Hey! Am I the only one working on getting all this stuff inside?"

Sora suddenly came running past carrying a box almost as big as he was, huffing and puffing out a hasty, "Sorry!"

"And you're just as lazy as he is," Riku grumbled to Kairi as she came in next with two smaller boxes, one stacked on top of the other.

"So you noticed!" she giggled as she too jogged past him, spotting the top box was about to topple off and shifting her hand up to steady it as she went.

Rolling his eyes, Riku just readjusted his grip on the container he was carrying so he could secure a better hold on it before following after the other two.

"I see you've put the hubby and the hubby's friends to work," I snorted dryly as I watched them go, before turning my attention on my roomie once more. "Did Xion and Roxas actually end up doing _anything_ to help with party prep?"

"They usually take care of it all in previous years, just this time they were nice enough to let me be in charge of everything so I could get as much birthday planning experience as possible! I wanna be the mom that throws the _best_ parties!" She paused thoughtfully for a moment then. "They _did_ pick the place though," she gestured around the pub, "and also helped blow up all the balloons."

"I brought the cake!" Anna happily announced as she tried to press a "Make a wish!" sticker to my cheek. My hand caught her wrist, stopping her in her tracks as I drooped my eyelids at her.

Had to draw the line somewhere.

"No, _I_ brought the cake," Kristoff abruptly appeared at her shoulder to correct her. Come to think of it, strawberry and sea salt ice cream cake _did_ sound like something that could probably be custom ordered from the Ice Palace. He playfully grinned down at her, " _You_ I had to keep from eating the thing on the whole ride over."

Anna gave an offended gasp, "Hey! So _not_ true!" One side of her mouth lifted as she threw up her dukes before him, "Them's fightin' words, buddy!"

He grunted out a laugh as she socked his shoulder. "Woah there, Feisty Pants. Easy," he caught her fists, one in each of his hands, and used his hold to spin her around so he was now hugging her from behind.

"I helped," Anna insisted with a halfhearted pout.

"You most certainly did. You helped by successfully _not_ eating the cake before we could get it here," he agreed, pressing his lips to her cheek. She cracked a smile then, seemingly mollified.

"Today's the day, Tifa!" Lea's voice suddenly cut through the hubbub of the festivities all around us. We turned as the crowd parted to reveal the redhead, cocky smirk twisting his lips as he thrusted a finger towards the person standing across the table from him, none other than Tifa herself. "That bottomless ale for a year is mine!"

She chuckled, cracking her knuckles. "Don't think I'll go easy on you just cuz it's your birthday, beanpole."

"Would never expect ya to," he shot back as he threw himself down into a chair, slamming his elbow on the table and holding his hand up, fingers curled and smirk widening.

"What's _that_ all about?" Anna asked quietly as a hush fell over the room. She'd set to work on getting Kristoff all decked out now in birthday finery, complete with stickers. Surprisingly (or maybe not really) he let her.

"Tifa - the woman he's challenging - owns the bar and has a deal going where if you can beat her at arm wrestling, you get your drink of choice free of charge for a whole year," I whispered back, not taking my eyes off the two contenders.

"Really?" Anna's lips formed a tiny 'o' as she paused mid-snapping a hat onto her boyfriend's head. Then she glanced back towards Tifa. "...wouldn't that put her out of business?"

Rayne made a noise through her nose that was somewhere between a snerk and a scoff. "Please. The woman hasn't lost to a challenger yet."

"Hafta warn ya," Lea was telling his opponent now as she settled into the seat opposite the table from him, "I've been doing extra reps at the gym. Gotta new trainer too. Name's Phil… perhaps you've heard of him?" The last part came out a touch smug.

"That old, washed-up has-been? You should demand your munny back," she flashed a half-grin as her elbow planted on the table as well and she clasped his hand with hers. "You sure about this? Not too late to back out. Hate to make a grown man cry on his birthday."

He barked out a laugh at that. "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to. 'Sides, it's a matter of manly pride to me at this point. You're going down, girl. Now go!"

_WHAM!_

That, my friends, had been the sound of Tifa taking a grand total of zero-point-three seconds to totally and utterly obliterate Lea's "manly pride.".

"Better luck next time, beanpole," Tifa winked as she stood up, dusted her hands together and walked away.

"Crap, can't believe ya'd _humiliate_ a guy like that on his _birthday_ of all days!" he called after her, sulking and hissing through his teeth as he shook some blood flow back into his hand.

His moping was short-lived however as Roxas and Xion rolled out the ginormous cake a minute later. The customary song was sung, the candles were blown out, and presumably a wish was made. Then slices were divvied out, Lea of course happily taking the largest piece whereas I opted for what was quite possibly the smallest, given that I still wasn't exactly sea salt ice cream's number one fan. I will admit however, the strawberries helped.

Shortly after that, karaoke started up. And shockingly, _I_ may or may not have been the one to get the karaoke ball rolling. Willingly, no less! It'd even been my own idea, no one had to drag me up there or anything this time! Perhaps taking part in _Wicked_ has gotten me more comfortable with performing on stage. Or maybe that college acting course I was taking with Lea now was already starting to work its magic on me. True, the semester had only just begun and we were just a couple classes into it, but hey… every little bit helped, didn't it?

In any case, I went with a song I'd picked out especially for this occasion and _especially_ with Lea in mind… Jodi Benson's _Happy Birthday, Princess_. I thought it suited Lea quite perfectly actually as I smirked over the mic at where he sat in the audience, cheering me on. Of course once I was done, I was quick to exit the stage to avoid any sort of encore performance.

One song was enough for lil ol' awkward, misanthropic me, thanks.

But still… baby steps. I count this as a win.

From the relative safety of the back of the room, I watched as several more people took their turns at the mic next, each with varying degrees of success. As I now fought a small smile watching Anna lug Kristoff up to karaoke so he could sing _Ain't No Mountain High Enough_ with her, I felt arms slip around to encircle my waist from behind while a faint but familiar boyish cinnamon scent reached my nose. "So here's where my lil hermit disappeared to after her big number, hiding tucked away in a dark corner," Lea's voice murmured against my ear, his breath tickling a bit.

My hands covered his as I leaned back slightly, settling comfortably into his chest. "I wouldn't say hiding so much as… enjoying the ambiance."

"Mm," I felt more than heard his hum of acknowledgement as he rested his chin atop my head. "Why're you all by yourself? Where are Raindrop and Riku?"

"They slipped off a few minutes ago in the direction of the restrooms." My face scrunched up a tad. "There's a good chance they've locked themselves in one and are making out like a pair of hormonal teenagers in it."

"Shit, they beat us to the punch," he chuckled and I elbowed him in the ribs for the comment, which only seemed to make him laugh harder. "Can't believe they left ya alone like this though. They're fired, let's find ya some new friends to hang out with."

I smiled, knowing he was only joking. "I'm good, thanks. Anna and Kristoff will be done and back in just a few minutes anyway."

His fingers idly played with mine, weaving and unweaving them only to weave them together again. "Aw c'mon, lemme help ya find a new posse, it'll be fun! Lessee, who do we got here…?" He used his hold around my middle to pivot us both, forcing my gaze away from where Anna was having no shame getting overly flirty with her lines on stage which in turn was causing Kristoff to get all flustered and horribly butcher his half of the song. I instead glanced about the room now, which was still quite packed - I think even more people had shown up since we'd arrived. Many were faces I recognized from Friday night drinks or laser tag or just from around the mall in general. There were also several that were unfamiliar to me sprinkled in amongst the rest.

It was one such stranger that Lea now directed my view towards with a, "Ah-ha! How 'bout that guy? Mr Broody McBrood Face over there with the blonde, spiky hair doing the cool-mystery-guy lean against the bar. That's Cloud. He and Tifa go waaaaay back.

"And that other dude that he's angrily eye fucking from the across the bar?" He steered us now to look at said dude. "The one with the long, white Fabio locks and looks like the whole Halloween Town store threw up on him? That's Sephiroth, or Sephy for short - take note, he's a _real_ huge fan o' that nickname. Anyhoo, the two of 'em are locked in an eternal battle to be the one true champion supreme over Darkness."

I blinked. "...Darkness?"

Now Lea turned us to face the pub's small arcade section. "Name of one of the pinball machines over there. Those knuckleheads are always fighting over who holds the high score. Currently, Sephy is top dog on the scoreboards, so he's standing guard to make sure Cloud doesn't steal the number one spot out from under his nose. Yeah, they take that game _way_ too seriously… so whaddya say, do they sound like prime bestie material for ya or what?"

"Or what," I wrinkled my nose and shook my head. "Think I'll pass."

"Alright, not your cup of tea, got it. Maybe this next bunch will be more your speed. See that gang over there, butting heads with Hayner, Olette, and Pence?" He swept me around to point me in another direction now, causing a tiny laugh to escape me. I spotted four people - a guy (who appeared to be the leader) with a scar across his face and wearing a beanie engaged in what looked to be a rather heated debate with Hayner, a girl with red eyes and half her face hidden behind bangs, a tan muscle-bound guy, and… well, I really couldn't make out whatever the deal was with the fourth one. Not with that large coat they were practically drowning in and the large brimmed hat shrouding their face.

"That's Seifer and crew," Lea went on to explain. "Or the Dusk Town Center Disciplinary Committee, aka the fancy lil title they gave themselves that basically means glorified mall security. Don't let the sneers fool ya tho, they're a real sweet lot… all warm and friendly-like. You'll fit right in with 'em!"

"Shut your mouth, chicken wuss!" Seifer suddenly shouted as he grabbed Hayner by the front of the shirt, who shoved him away with a snarl.

"Oh yeah… super friendly..." I deadpanned. "Not sure they're exactly my crowd though."

He gave a low chuckle, his arms tightening around my waist. "No? Dang, thought they'd be a shoe-in for sure. Hmm, who here can meet your impossibly high standards?" he teased. I would've reached back to tickle him for that remark if it weren't for his fingers gently squeezing mine now, holding them captive. He then turned us to face an occupied booth across the way.

"Got it this time for sure! That guy right there is Tarzan. He works over at that jungle-themed café at the mall. And the chick he's with? His girlfriend, Jane. She's hella smart, like step-aside-Einstein-there's-a-new-brainiac-in-town kinda smart. She's an anthro major over at Twilight U. Dunno what that girl sees in her neanderthal boyfriend. Don't get me wrong, he's nice and all, but dude's a _total_ ape. Seriously, I legit think he was raised by gorillas." As if on cue, the man in long dreads grinned and proceeded to stand and beat his chest with his fists, cracking up the brunette he was sitting with. "See? _See?_ " Lea pressed triumphantly.

I snorted softly as I watched the couple. "They do actually look kind of sweet… but no thanks. Wouldn't want to be a third wheel."

"Fine then, guess there's just no pleasin' ya, Lil Miss Wallflower," he cooed, nuzzling his nose into my cheek. I squirmed, closing one eye against it as I fought a grin. "If making friends is off the table, we'll just hafta find something else for ya to do. Hmm… oh! You can come sing a duet with me!"

"Sorry," I shook my head, "but I've already performed my one song for the day."

"What?! Aw man, I didn't know it was a one-and-done kinda deal, no fair!" I could hear the pout coloring his words. "C'mon, I love your voice. Just one more for me? You can't deny me on Lea Day, that's sacrilege!"

An amused huff escaped me. "I think I'll take my chances."

"The impudence! You're lucky you're so cute, otherwise there'd be a reckoning," he gave a halfhearted harrumph. Then, "Fine, ya don't gotta sing. Just come up on stage with me while I devote a love ballad to you."

"No thanks."

Ugh, so cheesy.

I could already feel my face warming at the very idea.

"C'mon, it'll be romantic. Let me serenade you," his voice dropped low as he started trailing light kisses down the side of my neck.

Well… I guess maybe… _one_ lil song wouldn't h-

Hold it!

Oh-ho, no. Nu-uh. Nice try, bucko, but you're not going to get me _that_ way!

"And I'm sure it'll be just as romantic if you serenade me while I'm sitting at a table in the _audience_ ," I said sweetly back.

A chuckle hummed in his throat. "Alright then, have it your way," he released me so he could spin me around and plant a smooch to my forehead. There was a wicked gleam in his eye now. Perhaps it should have set off warning alarms in my head.

But it didn't.

"Just remember… you asked for it," he smirked and winked before disappearing into the crowd in the direction of the karaoke stage.

Maybe his parting words should have filled me with a sense of dread and foreboding.

But they didn't.

Ah, what a naive little fool I was. It's true what they say. Ignorance really is bliss.

Anna and Kristoff soon finished their song and I clapped with everyone else as they stepped off the stage, making their way back towards me. It was just as we were finding an empty table that my blissful ignorance was shattered and tragedy struck.

It struck in the form of Lea's voice coming through the overhead speakers singing, " _Oh-oh-oh-oo-OOH!_ " to the opening notes of Lady Gaga's _Bad Romance_.

My face paled, my spine snapped rigid, and I whipped around to see him standing on the karaoke stage now with the cordless mic up to his lips. He made direct eye contact with me and flashed a wide cheshire grin as he kept crooning away at the song's intro, beckoning me with a crook of his finger. It seemed my presence was requested on stage.

I gulped, rapidly shook my head and crossed my arms as I sat down in my chair with more force than intended.

Nu-uh. No way. Not on your _life_ , pal.

He was undeterred. In fact, his toothy grin only broadened as he hopped down off the stage, singing the _gaga-ooh-la-la's_ now as he came charging straight across the bar towards me.

So I, of course, did the only logical and mature thing I could do in response.

I squeaked and scrambled to try and hide under the table.

Problem solving at its finest.

Unfortunately, I wasn't quick enough and he'd snagged my wrist before I could safely get under full cover. As he dragged me back out into the open, I snapped, "You said it would be romantic! This song is _not_ romantic!"

"You lost your chance at romance when ya refused to come on stage with me, babydoll! Now suffer for the birthday boy!" he cackled as he pressed me back down into my chair. I tried to stand up again, but his hand on my shoulder held me firmly in my seat. Then he raised the mic to his mouth once more, picking the lyrics back up as if he'd never been interrupted in the first place and started to dance around me in a way that was… hrm… how shall I put this? ... _provocative_ , but... so _exaggerated_ to the point of extreme silliness and absolutely absurdity. As people around us started clapping in time with the music with whoops and whistles, I looked down and buried my face in my hands.

Don't worry, I wasn't feeling mortified…

...merely _homicidal_.

I was seriously going to _murder_ him for this.

But no. I couldn't. Not today. Not on his birthday, of all days. Surely, I could give him a pass, just this once.

I'd slaughter him _tomorrow_ instead.

That's right, yuck it up while you can, you giant dork. Your days are numbered.

Also, I didn't know whether to be disturbed or impressed by the fact that he seemed to know this song by heart and didn't need that little karaoke TV to remind him what the next line was going to be.

As the chorus began now, he straddled my legs for a crude approximation of what might be considered in the very absolute _loosest_ sense of the term a lap dance. He whipped his free arm around over his head - oh gosh, was that dope doing The Lasso? - and Anna managed to wheeze out between her peels of laughter, "Oh my gawd, just how friggin' hammered is he?"

"Pretty sure he hasn't touched a single drop yet," I turned my head away from Lea, bringing up a hand to shield my face as I pretended I was _anywhere_ but here right now.

"You mean this is him _sober?!_ " she busted up all over again and nearly fell out of her chair, clinging to Kristoff's arm for support.

Any retort I might've made to that was swiftly forgotten as Lea, still singing away, spun around to give me a front row, up close and personal seat to his gyrating rear end. Rolling my eyes, I used both hands to shove the thing out of my face. A sharp gasp from Anna had me looking at her again. Swallowing splutters and snerks, she chided, "Sis, _behave_ yourself! You're in public!" She tsked, still struggling to keep a straight face. "Groping a guy like that, so unladylike… what would Mom and Dad say?"

I blinked. What was she even-?

...oh.

Oh god.

I basically, technically, for all intents and purposes and with the whole world to bear witness (or at the very least, the whole _bar_ )... had just grabbed my boyfriend's butt.

Okay. _Now_ I was mortified.

Thanks a lot, hands. You little harlots, you… you… _jezebels_ , you-

_Whump!_

Annnnd now Lea had flopped over backwards on top of our table. Just where exactly was he going with this next? Did I even want to know? I mean, _really?_

Whether I did or not, it seemed I had little choice in the matter. It was kind of like a scene out of a classic black-and-white film, where a sultry bombshell in a slinky dress would be stretched out seductively on top of a piano while sing-schmoozing the pianist. Except there was a table instead of a piano, Lea instead of the bombshell, leaving me as the sing-schmoozing recipient.

All still to _Bad Romance_ , mind you.

Which is just every girl's dream, am I right, ladies?

My eyelids drooped as I fixed him with a dull stare. I was determined to not give him anything. Zero reaction. Zilch. _Nothing_. There was a tiny gleam to his eyes now as they crinkled, sending a clear message: _Challenge accepted_. In the end, it actually didn't take much to break my resolve. Just him hooking a finger into my necklace, drawing me close so he could "whisper" (if it could even be called that, considering the mic was still broadcasting his singing) into my ear the lyrics, " _You know that I want you… and you know that I need you… I want it bad, your bad romance._ "

That's when it happened.

A mutinous little snort rushed out my nostrils. Then I was cracking up laughing and shoving his face away. Beaming in victory, he hopped up off the table to resume singing and dancing around me like an idiot. And for the record, he seemed to take _way_ too much delight in the parts of the song where he got to shout, " _I'm a free bitch, baby!_ "

The buffoonery thankfully only lasted another minute or two before the song came to an end. After he gave several flourishing bows to the loud round of applause for his performance, Lea handed off the mic to someone else. I did not envy the next person up for karaoke who had to follow _that_ act. Then Lea flashed a grin as he leaned over where I was still seated, bracing himself with a hand on the table. "Well now, I hope we learned our lesson!"

I crossed my arms, smirking up at him. "We most certainly did."

"Good. So next time I wanna serenade ya on the karaoke stage, you…" he trailed off, waiting for me to fill in the blank.

My smirk widened. "...barricade myself in the bathroom until the song is over."

He gave a soft _pft_ at that. "It's adorable that ya think I couldn't just bust that door straight off its hinges and-"

"Lea! Get your ass over here!" Xion suddenly came bursting through the crowd, skidding to a stop in front of him with a giggle. "It's that time at last!"

He whipped his head towards her, blinking a couple times. "Huh?"

She snerked, "Don't gimme that dumb look! It's Present Time!"

His whole face lit up before he glanced towards me slyly. "Oh goody, and I know _exactly_ whose I'm gonna open up first!"

...fudge.

My hands were already reaching to tug and twist at me braid as I frowned. "Or, uh… or maybe you could start with… some of the other gifts? That way-"

-I could secretly compare what other people had got him to what _I'd_ got him and then-

"-you, um… you wouldn't be playing favorites! Yeah! And, er…"

-if I thought my present terrible by comparison, I could maybe covertly remove it from the pile and-

"...that just wouldn't be... _fair!_ You know… to the _other_ gifts!"

-sneak out, buy him something better, return and slip the new one into the stack with everyone here none the wiser, least of all Lea!

"...which might hurt their… their _feelings!_ And you wouldn't want to go around hurting the other gifts' feelings, now would you?"

Wait, what was I going on about?

Ugh, mouth… I leave you unsupervised for two seconds and _this_ is what I come back to?

Well, at least you tried. A for effort… No, you know what? C-minus. Do better next time.

Lea pressed his lips to my cheek and ruffled my bangs. "Well, all the other presents will just hafta put on their big boy pants and suck it up," he playfully teased before going with Xion to where his treasure horde awaited him. I grimaced slightly before slowly following behind.

Most of the partygoers had already gathered in a circle around the present table. I squeezed into a spot between my sister and (a somewhat disheveled but thoroughly satisfied-looking) Rayne. The chatter around us was shushed as Lea approached the small mountain of colorfully wrapped boxes. He immediately zeroed in on mine, yanking it out and raising it high over his head to be met with cheers from the whole room. Then he held it up to his ear, giving it a little shake and arching his eyebrow with a grin.

Oh gosh, what if he didn't like it?

I mean, I'd felt so… so _sure_ when I'd first laid eyes on it. So confident in my decision when I'd made the purchase. So certain as I'd wrapped it, zero doubt in my mind that he'd absolutely love it - which was so out of character for one such as myself who'd second guessed every gift decision I'd ever made in my entire life. Well, now I was second guessing _this_ one too. Up until a minute ago, it'd seemed so perfect. But now all of a sudden, it just seemed so… so _stupid_ and-

-and oh god, he was ripping it open!

I couldn't watch!

My hands flew up to cover my eyes.

Ahhhhh, much better! Now I had absolutely no clue what was going on!

...except now I had absolutely _no clue_ what was going on. Oh dear, had he finished removing all the wrapping paper? Had he opened the box? Was he looking inside this very second? What was his reaction? Was he happy? Confused? Indifferent? Underwhelmed? Disappointed? Crestfallen? So unimpressed by what a mundane, thoughtless gift it was to the point of taking offense and throwing it in the nearest trash can, lighting it on fire and- dear lord, not knowing what was going on was _worse_. So, _so_ much more worse! Why wasn't he even saying anything? If he'd just say _something_ , maybe I could at least get _some_ sense of his-

"Holy shit."

...yeah, I didn't know what to do with that.

Was that a good "holy shit" or a bad "holy shit"?

Or maybe a wow-this-present-sucks-so-much-that-I'm-breaking-up-with-you "holy shit"?

Perhaps if he just said one more thing-

"Holy shit."

...preferably something _else_ and that was maybe a bit more _descriptive_.

Ugh, screw it. I couldn't take this anymore.

I parted my fingers ever so slightly, just enough so I could peek between them. There he stood now with an action figure in molded plastic packaging in one hand while the other reached inside the open cardboard box on the table in front of him, still with bits of shredded gift wrap taped to it. Out came a second toy similar to the one he was already holding and just as brightly packaged. Other than both of his eyebrows reaching for his hairline, Lea's expression was unreadable as he glanced from one to the other.

"He's part of a set," someone suddenly blurted out.

Took me a second to realize it was _me_.

As Lea's gaze locked on mine, I bit my bottom lip and wrung my hands together for a second. Then, "Bubbles, I mean. He's… They're… all of them together, that is... they make a set." I hesitated for another beat before finally stepping forward to reach inside the cardboard box, pulling out the third and final one so I could hold it up to him as well. Heart thudding in my ears, I hastily began to explain, "Besides the orca you already had, there's also robots for a great white shark, a dolphin and a whale shark. And they all have machine guns too!" I tacked on with a bit of nervous excitement, then frowned. "...for… some… _bizarre_ reason." I shrugged, "Anyway, now you have them all. Bubbles has, er… has been reunited with his brothers! Or… sisters, maybe? I mean, far be it from me to assume the gender of a," I paused, squinting at the toy's packaging for a second and slowly reading off,"...royal sea dinosaur deformation robot." I wrinkled my nose. Yeesh, what a mouthful. Clearing my throat and suppressing a tiny grimace, I then uncertainly asked the question that I was dreading the answer to. "So… what do you think?"

Still, Lea said nothing, just pursed his lips to one side as he scrutinized the action figures again. But then he uttered one single, solitary word. "Riptide."

I blinked. "Uh…?"

...was that a good "riptide" or a bad "riptide"?

A smile broke out across his face now as he tapped a fingertip to the plastic encasing the one in my hands - the whale shark. "Riptide," he said again. Then he lifted the great white, his hand giving it a little wiggle, "And this one's Whirlpool."

Oh! He was _naming_ them.

That was a good sign, right? Was the present a success? Had I done it? Had I achieved the dream?

"This is great, now the kiddos and I can play with 'em all together!" he laughed. "Xion will be Riptide, Rox Whirlpool, and I _of course_ will control Bubbles."

One side of my mouth quirked up. "Then I guess that makes that one for Saïx," I nodded towards the dolphin.

"You kidding? Saïx wouldn't be caught _dead_ playing with toy robots," Lea razzed his tongue in his brother's direction, whose only reply was to fix him with a dull stare. "Then again, who knows, once in a blue moon he might surprise us. In that case, he can borrow it, but only if he asks ya nicely first."

"Me?" I furrowed my brow at him.

His infamous dimple emerged. "Course! Cuz that's the one _you'll_ normally play!"

"Oh." I'd been assigned one of the robots. Was it odd that that made me a teensy bit giddy? Trading him the whale shark for the dolphin, I inspected it with a small grin. "So what's this one's name then?"

"Craig."

My eyes snapped up to meet his again and I echoed incredulously, " _Craig?_ "

He nodded firmly, "Mm-hm. Craig."

I cocked an eyebrow at him. "...so their names are Bubbles, Riptide, Whirlpool… and _Craig_."

"What? He _looks_ like a Craig!" Lea defended.

"Don't be silly, how on earth could an aquatic robot toy _possibly_ look like a-" I cut myself off as I glanced at the little figurine in my hands again. I blinked once, then twice. "...actually, he kind of does look like a Craig." My head tipped to one side with a thoughtful frown, "Huh."

Lea then hooked his finger under my chin, lifting it and drawing my attention back to him so he could kiss me before murmuring against my lips, "These are amazing, El, I love them. Thank you."

My face warmed as I bit back a small smile and nodded. "You're welcome. Glad you like them."

Tucking them all with care back into the big cardboard box, Lea called out, "And now, the show must go on! So lil time, so many presents to get through! Onward to the next tribute celebrating the greatness that is me! Minions!" he pointed to Roxas and Xion. "Bring me the next offering forthwith! Chop, chop!" he clapped his hands together twice.

They both just drooped their eyelids at him as Roxas deadpanned, "Yeah, no. Not happening."

"Ugh, fine! Guess the birthday boy's just gotta do everything himself!" Lea harrumphed before walking over to pluck the next gift from the top of the pile and thrusting it up above his head again for another round of cheers from everyone gathered to watch.

I observed for a while longer with everyone else as he gradually made his way through the stack. Amongst other things, he got a video game rated M for extreme violence, blood and gore from Roxas, a DVD box set for some series that looked old, sappy and right up Lea's alley from Xion, and a big, heavy hardcover book from Saïx that was difficult to discern from the title whether it was a novel or some sort of academic text. Lea quickly hid the flicker of a grimace at the last one, thanking his brother all the same. Towards the end as the heap began to dwindle, the crowd and press of people started to get to be a little too much for me and so I decided to slip outside for a few minutes for a quick breather. There were only a few presents left anyhow, so I was sure I wouldn't miss much.

Dusk was beginning to fall as I stepped out onto 7th Heaven's deck. I was the only one out here as I moved to take a seat at one of the picnic tables, closing my eyes and relaxing on the wooden bench. After all the hubbub inside, the solitude and quiet was a welcome change. The cool autumn gust felt good on my skin and I breathed it in as it toyed with my braid.

Not sure how long I stayed like that. Probably only a few minutes before I could hear the murmur from the festivities once more as the bar's door opened briefly before closing again. Then the sound of approaching footsteps on the patio before the bench creaked under the weight of someone taking a seat next to me, their knee brushing against mine.

"You all good?" his voice reached my ears.

I opened my eyes now, turning my head to look at Lea. He was slouched comfortably where he sat, propped up by his elbows on the tabletop behind him, flashing me a gentle grin. I smiled warmly back and nodded. "I'm fine. Just wanted some fresh air. You should get back to enjoying the party, I'll be right behind you."

The corner of his eyes crinkled before he slung an arm around my shoulders, hugging me tightly into his side. His teeth lightly nipped at the tip of my nose before he rested his cheek against my hair. "Lil fresh air sounds good. I'll head back inside in a minute."

As I settled my head into the crook of his neck, I hummed a contented sigh. Then I pointed out towards the sunset, simply telling him, "Look."

I felt a small chuckle rumble through his chest. "That certainly is a lovely shade of red."

"Mm," I agreed softly. "...I unfortunately can't do anything about a summer breeze for you though. Not until next year anyway."

"Don't worry 'bout it. Three outta four ain't too shabby."

I gave a low snort at that. Then, "So… you having a good birthday so far?"

"The best," he nodded against my hair. There was a smirk in his tone as he added, "I mean, course it's no locking us in my room together, worshipping every last inch of your body, that whole shebang, but still… pretty damn good."

A blush creeped into my cheeks as I hesitated before saying, "Good thing that's the plan for tomorrow then."

I felt him tense beside me. Then he was lifting his head off mine as he pulled away slightly to fish his phone out of his pocket. He tapped his thumb to "Work" under his contacts before bringing it up to his ear as he beamed big at me.

"Welp," he delightedly chirped, "Looks like I'm callin' in sick for tomorrow!"

* * *

_**Author's note:** _ _BE WARNED! Extra long chapter gets extra long Author's Note! Keep reading at your own peril xD It's all just basically fun facts and me explaining the random inner workings of my oddball brain as I wrote this chapter, so if none of that interests you, then just skip it all, no skin off my nose xP_

_Early on in writing "Ice Cream and Fire Oven Pizza", I decided I wanted to figure out when Lea's and Elsa's birthdays were for no other reason than just because I could! So with the help of several "what the day you were born on says about you" websites, I spent days poring over the meaning of more birthdates than I care to admit before finally deciding on (insert drum roll) August 3rd for Lea's bday! It was a really silly thing to spend all those hours on cuz at the time I had no plans for their birthdays to ever come up in the story at all, it was just a random fact I wanted to know about both my characters xD But then as I was writing these bonus chapters, I suddenly remembered figuring out those birthdays and realized Lea's big day was coming up between 2 chapters I had planned and I was all, "well shit, I should probably write it!" And whew, I tell ya, for starting out this chapter having absolutely ZERO CLUE what to write, I certainly came up with a lot of BS to fill it with, making it my longest chapter yet xD Hehe, guess I overcompensated, oops! Hopefully it was all fun to read tho! I'll probably get around to writing an Elsa bday chapter too, but hers isn't until February 5th, so we have a lil bit before we get there. Also, timeline is getting a lil vague, wibbly-wobbly with these bonus chapters, but if I try to line this chapter up calendar-date-wise with whatever the date was exactly that Elsa ran away at the start of this story, pretty sure at this point I have to say that Oaken ALWAYS has a big summer blowout going on in his store, no matter WHAT time of year it is xD_

_Hopefully strawberries and sea salt ice cream cake sounds good :P According to the internet, it should be delicious, I'm just not sure if it SOUNDS delicious to the reader haha! I just thought plain old sea salt ice cream cake would be too basic bitch for someone like Lea on his BIRTHDAY of all days, so I went too far in the other direction at first (still sea salt cuz DUH, but I think there was also chocolate and blackberries involved? Again, the internet said it would taste PHENOMENAL, but it didn't SOUND phenomenal xD) before toning it back to just strawberries xD Anyhoo, another chapter jam-packed with references! Some might have been more subtle than others tho, so I wonder if you guys were able to catch them all? I brought Tifa back for a proper cameo this chapter, since I didn't really do her justice back in chapter 12 - hopefully this made up for it xD I even came up with a lame twist on Cloud and Sephy's whole Darkness bit from the KH games - I know it's a lil off since Sephiroth is supposed to BE Cloud's darkness, but shhh, close enough, dang it! On another note, I spent way too long trying to figure out what song Elsa would sing at karaoke, especially for what amounted to just one friggin' sentence lol! I wanted a birthday song that wasn't the standard one, but everything I could find was either too sexy or too sappy for El, either of which would have made her too flustered to sing in front of a bunch of people xD I almost went with one of the birthday songs by either The Backstreet Boys or NSYNC cuz she actually probably would have been the most comfortable with their lyrics, but I just couldn't bring myself to write Elsa singing goddamn Backstreet Boys or NSYNC x'D Just when I'd been about to give up all hope of ever finding the right song, I happened upon "Happy Birthday Princess" sung by Jodi Benson, which I felt Elsa would not be embarrassed singing to Lea while at the same time letting her be a lil cheeky about it xP It's a song on an album entitled "Disney Princess Tea Party" and Jodi Benson is actually Ariel's voice actor! Fun Fact: I imagine in the "Ice Cream and Fire Oven Pizza" universe, people like Jodi Benson and Idina Menzel still exist just instead of being voice actors, they're singers equivalent to Christina Aguilera, Beyoncé, and Lady Gaga fame. Speaking of Lady Gaga… xD THAT happened cuz my hubby recently discovered he really likes the song Bad Romance and played it on loop almost constantly for like 2 weeks while I was writing this chapter haha! You'd think I'd get sick of the song, but actually it got me pretty hooked too - and I'd liked the song before, but you know I never actually LISTENED to the lyrics until I heard it nonstop and lemme tell you, that is one surprisingly HORNY song xP In any case, my brain eventually warped it into me totally being able to see Lea singing it at karaoke and being a total dope about it too xD But hey… at least I didn't include the full lyrics to the song this time! We've finally reached a point in the story where someone singing isn't pivotal to their character growth and thus I can gloss over it, huzzah! On one final note, those action figures are real! I think I mentioned that about the orca robot back in chapter 30, but the whole set is a real thing! And I know, honestly maybe it would make more sense as a gift you'd give to Demyx since they're all sea life themed, but I could definitely see Lea going totally bonkers over them too just cuz their weird AF which, let's face it, is Lea's brand xD_

_Thank you so much for reading, especially to those of you who have left a kudos and shared with me your thoughts and feelings on this story so far! Remember, feedback is not only welcome, but highly encouraged and super appreciated!_

_Next bonus chapter is once again gonna be focused on Lea and something going on in his life, but is gonna be a lil less mindless nonsense and a lil more serious… but still flavored with my odd brand of humor tho, cuz it's me and that's just how I roll! And the hint will be… car keys! Ooo, how are THOSE involved?! Stay tuned!_


	35. Chapter 35

"Come on, Lea, unlock the door," I coaxed gently as I tugged on the car handle a couple times, even though I knew the action would be in vain. "Don't you think it's possible that you're being just a smidge childish?"

"What else is new?" Saïx deadpanned from where he leaned with one hip propped against the hood of his car and boredly scrolled through his phone, not even bothering to look up.

Lea's only response was to glower, razz his tongue and flip his brother the bird before huffily crossing his arms and slouching even further down into the driver's seat.

A testament to what a pillar of maturity he was being at the moment.

Sighing, I bent forward slightly so I could better see him through the window glass. "Need I remind you that you agreed to this?"

"I was tricked!" he harrumphed back, his voice muffled from the other side of the closed door.

My head tipped to one side. "Alright… _how_ exactly were you tricked?"

His head turned to meet my gaze as he drooped his eyelids. "You had a cookie."

I blinked. "...and?"

"And I wanted the cookie."

"...so…?" I prompted again as my brow furrowed.

"So now the cookie's gone, I've changed my mind and wanna go home! Now get on board or get stranded cuz either way, I'm _leaving_." He jammed the key into the ignition, twisted hard and… nothing. Lea's eyes widened briefly before narrowing as he turned it again. And yet again.

"Did you forget my car requires the key _and_ the code to start the engine, oh brainless one?" Saïx said flatly, eyes still trained on his phone screen.

That's right. Saïx's vehicle had a friggin' _keypad_ built into the center console that required a seven-digit code. And it was a BMW no less. One did really have to wonder what his mystery job was that allowed him to afford such luxuries.

Lea growled, banging his palms against the steering wheel. "God fucking damnit, Saïx! This is _exactly_ why ya shoulda told me the stupid password _ages_ ago!"

He cocked an eyebrow at that. "So you could lock me out of my own automobile and drive away with it? As compelling an argument as that may be, I'm not exactly swayed."

"As compelling an argument as that may be, I'm not exactly swayed," Lea parroted back in a mockingly nasal tone before mashing his hand down hard on the car horn, blasting it and startling Saïx into jumping away from the vehicle and nearly dropping his phone. He shot Lea a dirty look, who simply replied by flashing him a half sneer, half smirk - a "smeerk," if you will.

"Well," I hastily interjected, trying to keep the peace as I once more peered inside Lea's impromptu little sanctuary on four wheels, "since I think we can all agree that it looks like you're stuck here for the time being, perhaps _now_ you'll want to come out? Maybe even go inside the house with us?"

"Mm-mm. Nope. Not going anywhere _near_ that dump," he hitched his chin with a derisive sniff. "My happy ass is gonna stay put right here, thank you very much."

My lips pursed to one side. "...okay… for how long?"

"Forever."

I fixed him with a dull stare. "Forever? Really?"

"Forever," he repeated, his voice firm. But then with a thoughtful frown, he amended, "...or until ya tell me you won't make me go inside. Whichever comes first."

I exchanged a brief look with Saïx. Then we both nodded as we came to an unspoken agreement together. My gaze settled on Lea once more, "Alright. I won't make you go inside."

He squinted at me, eyes suspicious as they darted over to his brother, then back. "You swear?"

"Cross my heart," I used a finger to draw an X over my chest.

Still, he looked unconvinced. A pause, then he rolled down the window a crack, just enough to poke his little finger out as he insisted, "Pinkie promise?"

My lips flapped as I blew out an incredulous little huff, but I hooked my pinkie with his. "I _promise_ I won't make you go inside."

"Well, alright then!" his face immediately brightened and he unlocked the door. I took a step back as it swung open wide and he stepped out, reaching his hands skyward for a whole-body stretch with a satisfied sigh. "Whew! Feels good to be outta that car after all that time on the road, huh? My ass was starting to go numb from all that sitting and- _shit motherfuck!_ "

The last part came out in a hiss when Saïx rushed him and Lea dodged just in the nick of time. "Betrayal! J'accuse!" Lea snapped as he dove for the still open car door, but stumbled just short of it thanks to Saïx catching his ankle in both hands. Not one to go out without a fight, Lea desperately latched one hand to the steering wheel and the other to the door frame, trying with all his might to pull himself back inside the vehicle while Saïx threw his entire body weight into dragging him _out_ of it. Muscles straining, Lea snarled through grit teeth, "You _promised!_ "

" _She_ did. _I_ made no such promise," Saïx replied matter-of-factly. He didn't even seem to be breaking a sweat.

"Don't think you'll get off on a goddamn _technicality!_ " Lea grunted, gaining another inch into the car interior. He attempted a futile kick towards Saïx's face, "Leggo!"

Gnawing on my thumbnail, I now just watched as these two grown ass men basically played tug-of-war… with Lea's _leg_. And… shoot, it looked like Lea was winning. I had to do something, but what?

He suddenly shot me a tiny glare over his shoulder, "I expect this kinda bullshit from _him_ , but not from y-"

I lunged towards him, grabbed his face with both hands, and pressed my lips firmly to his.

He lost his grip and came flying out of the car, crashing into Saïx who staggered but managed to stay upright. "That's _cheating!_ " Lea huffed indignantly as he tried to scramble back inside the car again, but Saïx got him in a headlock first. He fought to pry himself free and when that proved unsuccessful, his hand suddenly produced the car keys once more, almost seemingly out of thin air. Threateningly tapping the tip of one key to the car's paint job, he spat, "Unhand me, villain, or the Beemer gets it!"

Saïx made a grab for the keys which gave Lea the opening he needed to elbow him in the gut and break free. But Saïx was quick to recover and snagged Lea again before he could get back inside the safety of the BMW. A struggle ensued, one that resulted in Saïx getting Lea in a grapple hold from behind by hooking his arms up under his armpits, back over his shoulders and interlocking his fingers together at the nape of Lea's neck.

Huffing and puffing and subdued for the moment, Lea grumbled a long string of curses under his breath as his brother hauled him around the car and across the front lawn towards the house - a rather nice suburban home, I might add, despite Lea's earlier comment about it being a dump. There was even a rather expensive looking car in the driveway, some sort of convertible that was sleek and black with a plate that read _Insomnia RHS-113_.

I took a quick glance inside Saïx's car to make sure we hadn't forgotten anything and noticed Saïx's had left behind the bag he'd brought with him. Grabbing it, I closed the driver's door and as I hurried to catch up, I could hear Saïx lecturing, "I did not ruin my sleep schedule _and_ drive for half a day to get us all here just for you to chicken out at the last second and hole up in the car. You're going inside. Deal with it."

Lea turned his head to one side with a tiny scoff, but had no other retort. As we stepped onto the porch, his eyes landed on me. "You! Can't believe ya used your feminine wiles on me for _evil_. Of all the cheap, dirty, underhanded - _dude_ ," that last one had been directed at Saïx, who still had him grappled, "ya mind? You won already, jackass! I'm not going anywhere, jeez!"

Saïx hesitated for a few seconds, his face pinching before finally letting him go. "Thank you," Lea ground out in a tone that was the very antithesis of gratitude as he rolled his shoulders and popped his neck. Then he focused on me once more as Saïx retrieved his bag from me, "Now, where was I...? That's right! Of all the low, crooked, sneaky-"

"I'm sorry," I grimaced as I fidgeted with my braid. "...are you mad at me?"

"You kiddin'? Hell no, I'm _proud_ of ya! Slowly but surely, I'm corrupting you to the ways of the dark side, El! 'Sides, who could get pissed at this adorable widdle face," he cooed, pinching my cheeks and smooching my forehead.

Then he tried to bolt.

It seemed he was hoping the element of surprise would be on his side.

" _Gack!_ "

Unfortunately for him, it was not.

For that'd been the sound of him choking as Saïx snatched him by the scruff of the shirt , causing its collar to dig into his throat. He stumbled to an immediate stop and Saïx let go, folding his arms together and fixing him with an unamused look. Lea just rubbed at the fresh sore spot around his neck and laughed sheepishly. "Uh… wouldja believe I just forgot something in the car?"

Saïx drooped his eyelids. "No."

"Heh. Was worth a shot."

"It really wasn't," Saïx harrumphed as his hands smoothed his hair and swiped the wrinkles out of his clothes from their little kerfuffle. Then, without further ado or preamble, he pressed the doorbell.

A hush fell over us as we all waited. Lea glanced back over his shoulder, furtively side-eyeing the car. Saïx smacked the back of his head with a sharp _thwack!_ "Ow! What the fuck was that for?" Lea snarled, socking him in the arm.

He didn't even flinch, just kept staring hard at the door as he muttered, "Don't even think about it."

"Wha- me? _Think?_ Psh, I would never!"

"Finally… something we can both agree on."

Lea curled his lip with a soft _tch_ , but otherwise fell quiet again… _unnaturally_ quiet. At least for Lea anyway. He looked agitated now, with his eyes downcast and his lips set into a grim line, his posture very rigid and his whole body very still. I frowned and slipped my hand inside his, gently squeezing as I laced our fingers together. He looked over at me, eyes softening and smiling weakly as his grip tightened around mine and stayed that way.

That's when the front door opened.

Lea looked at the new face that greeted us now. "Hey…" he began, then paused, seeming to struggle with the next word. He closed his eyes, inhaled deeply before exhaling, then finally forced out a soft, "...Mom."

You read that right.

Mom.

Lea had finally done it. At long last, he'd caved and agreed to see her. And trust me, he really _had_ consented to this reunion, despite what his little tantrum a minute ago might look like to the contrary. Was it weird that I was here too for this? I thought maybe it was, at least a little bit. I mean, somehow I just felt like the first time I met his mother shouldn't also be the first time he was seeing her again in twenty years. Maybe that was just me though. In any case, Lea had kept saying how much he'd wanted me with him for moral support. Somewhat more surprisingly, Saïx had been pretty insistent about me joining them as well. Perhaps he thought my presence might keep Lea more docile and civil towards their mother.

If so, I got the feeling Saïx was about to be in for a rude awakening.

The woman who stood in the doorway before us now was pretty, her silver hair pulled back into a ponytail with long bangs that framed her face and the same vibrant green eyes as Lea and Saïx. She would've had to have been young when she had given birth to these two. Oh gosh, I might even go so far as to guess that she'd still been a teenager when she had Saïx.

Her eyes widened at the sight of Lea and she blinked a couple times. But then a slow half-grin tugged at her lips as she crossed her arms and lazily leaned one shoulder against the door frame. "Well, look who finally decided to give me the time of day."

"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled, averting his gaze with a tiny scowl as he rubbed his shoulder with his free hand, "let's not make a huge fuss outta it."

"Course not, wouldn't dream of it. I-" she cut herself off, looking past him towards the afternoon horizon, bringing up a hand to shade her eyes with. "...wouldja look at that? Why, I do believe that's a pig flying."

"That's it, I'm leaving."

With a snort, she snagged him by the elbow before he could get very far. "Now now, no need for the ruffled feathers, I was just jerking your chain. Now stop camping out on my porch and c'mon, get in here!" It seemed it was not a request for with that, she yanked him inside, forcing me to stumble and follow since our hands were still linked.

"When you mentioned you might be bringing friends with you, Saïx, you never said _anything_ about one of 'em being Axel," the woman good-naturedly accused him as he stepped in behind us, clicking the door shut before accepting a hug from her. From this angle, I could see her ponytail was composed of several smaller, segmented ponytails.

My boyfriend narrowed his eyes at her, "Not Axel. It's Lea now."

Releasing Saïx, she cocked her head at Lea and then hummed a laugh. "Right. Saïx told me something about that. Gotta be one of the cool kids and go by your middle name, huh, _Lea?_ " her fingers bounced in air quotes around the name.

"It's not about being cool, it's- ugh, nevermind," Lea grumbled before shooting his brother a little death glare and muttering, "She didn't even know I was coming?"

"Didn't want to get her hopes up," he replied in his usual cool monotone.

Whatever comeback he might've had to that was swallowed in a grunt as he next suffered (quite visibly, in fact) a hug from her. He did not return the embrace. She didn't seem to mind or even notice. "C'mere, let me have look at you," his mother suddenly demanded as she pulled back and Lea's face scrunched up in displeasure as she grabbed it, tugging him down for closer inspection. After a few seconds of scrutiny, she smirked and declared, "Pretty Boy, mm! Both you _and_ Saïx. You have me to thank for those good genes. And you're both so tall too! Dunno where _that_ comes from, cuz you certainly didn't get it from me. You boys must be eating your Wheaties."

Now that she mentioned it, she was pretty short. About my height, in fact, maybe an inch or two taller. It was hard to be sure exactly in those heels she was wearing. But that did raise an interesting point now…

...how _did_ such big men come from such a tiny woman?

The logistics of it had my mind boggling!

"And who's this cute lil thing?" she was now turning her gaze on me. Then to where my hand was still intertwined with Lea's and her eyes crinkled slyly. "Oh-ho, I see. This is the _girlfriend_."

I smiled shyly back before shooting Lea a quick, awkward glance. He stepped in to introduce me, "Mom, this is Elsa."

Still feeling rather out of place here, I sucked in a tiny, anxious breath before getting out, "It's so nice to meet you, Mrs-"

"God no, please, none of that 'Mrs' crap," she said dryly before grinning once more. "First name's fine, shortcake. Just call me Aranea. Alright, you're up."

...up? Up for _what_ exac-

I squeaked as I too was suddenly assaulted with a hug. Just as abruptly, she was leaning back just enough to squint her eyes at me and tilt her head.

Ah. I see. My turn to be assessed and appraised like a piece of meat.

Well, I certainly hoped I passed inspection!

After a few tense seconds, one corner of her lips quirked up. "You two are gonna make absolutely _gorgeous_ babies. So when are you gonna get on popping out my grandkids? Wait, don't tell me… there's already a bun in the oven."

" _Mom!_ " Lea snapped, my face erupting into flames as he lunged to get between me and her.

There was most certainly _not_ a bun in the oven! There wasn't so much as… as… as _dough!_ The oven wasn't even, uh... _preheating!_ No, trust me, my "oven" was one hundred and ten percent _bunless_ , thank you very much!

Aranea snorted, "Calm down, was only having a lil fun. Just trying to make up for all those years of motherly teasing I missed out on."

A soft _hmph_ from his throat. "Yeah? Well, who's fault was that?"

Her eyes widened slightly and a heavy silence descended over the cozy foyer we were all currently gathered in. Saïx directed a muted scowl at his brother. It went ignored, Lea idly inspecting his nails now and not looking the least bit sorry.

This visit? Off to a _great_ start. Simply superb.

"Aranea?" a clipped, British accent suddenly came echoing from somewhere else in the house, thankfully shattering the long, uncomfortable lull. "Who was that at the-?" the owner of the voice emerged through one of the archways and the words died on his tongue as his eyes alighted on all of us. He had short, dirty blonde hair that was spiked up and intelligent, green eyes that were sharp behind his sleek, black-rimmed glasses. "Oh. I see you've begun the pleasantries without me. Saïx, my boy," he smiled, extending his hand, "a pleasure as always. Might I inquire as to who your comrades are?"

"The prodigal son returns home at last," Aranea wryly chimed in before Saïx could. "Iggy, it's about time you've met my second eldest knucklehead of a kid Axel and his-"

"Lea, Mom. _Lea_. Get it memorized!"

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Lea," the man cordially stretched a hand out to him now.

He didn't take it. "It's something, alright…" he arched an unimpressed eyebrow, "...Iggy, was it?"

He gave a curt if a bit sheepish chuckle at that. "Ignis, if you would. And who is this lovely companion of yours?"

A beat.

Then I gasped, "Oh!"

It's _me_.

_I'm_ the lovely companion.

Self-consciously clearing my throat, I supplied, "E-Elsa." I did take his hand when offered, blurting out, "And I'll have you know I'm completely and totally bunless."

...thank you, mouth, for that _entirely_ unnecessary addition to the conversation.

His brow furrowed as he took his hand back. "Well... allow me to see what I can do about that."

Uh…

...was he propositioning me?

"Perhaps I can whip up a few rolls to go with dinner," he suggested, tapping his knuckles to his chin.

Oh.

He meant _bun_ buns. Not-

Ahem. Nevermind.

"So," Lea spoke up once more, folding his arms beneath his chest as he fixed the man with a hard stare. " _You're_ the orthodontist."

"Optometrist, actually," Ignis corrected. "By the by, when was your last eye exam? If you'd like, I could squeeze you in for a quick checkup sometime, free of charge."

A small, contemptuous huff escaped his nostrils as his eyelids drooped. "Yeah, you'd like that, wouldn't you?"

Ignis gave a bemused frown at that, but was saved from having to respond as Aranea inserted herself back into the conversation with, "Iggy, is that…?" She trailed off and the second Ignis glanced away from us to look at her instead, Saïx discreetly elbowed Lea, forcing a tiny _oof_ out of him. Aranea grinned as she took in what Ignis was wearing, "It is. You old softie, you put on the apron I got you."

"I cut quite the dashing figure in it if I do say so myself," he gave a pleased little sniff as he stood a bit straighter and absently fiddled with the neck strap of said apron which had the words _Gordon Ramsay is my bitch_ proudly emblazoned across its breast. That, plus the fact that I was just now noticing that he was carrying a meat mallet in one hand, suggested he'd most likely just come from the kitchen.

"Mm, I'll say," she nodded as she continued to eye him up and down appreciatively. But then her gaze landed on the meat mallet - more specifically, on the little gooey red flecks clinging to it. "Hey, did you start tenderizing the steaks without me? Told you I'd help with that."

"I'm loath to make a lady bloody her own hands," he murmured with a tiny smile, wrapping his fingers around hers and bringing them up to his lips.

Lea made a low noise deep in his throat that was half scoff, half gag. That earned him a firm shoulder check from Saïx while he walked past Lea to step closer to his mother and Ignis. As Saïx engaged the two of them in some polite small talk, Lea's expression twisted sourly and he started muttering something under his breath too quiet for me to make out. Seeing as how the others were preoccupied with their own conversation at the moment, I took the opportunity to once more take his hand in mine and ask gently, "Something you want to get off your chest?"

"Hm?" he distractedly hummed, still with a slight glower as his gaze remained fastened to the other three for a few seconds more. But then he snapped out of it and huffed out a sigh, fingers agitatedly ruffling at his hair. "Aw, nothing. I just don't trust it."

I tipped my head to the right. "Don't trust what?"

" _Him_ ," he hissed through his teeth, gesturing with his chin towards Ignis. "The whole fucking posh, namby-pamby Brit orthodontist act. Nice try, pal. Not buying it."

I shook my head with a snort, "He's an _optometrist_ , Lea."

"Exactly! The jerk can't even get his story straight," he harrumphed. "Betcha he doesn't even know the first thing about corrective lenses."

"The man wears glasses," I deadpanned.

"All part o' the cover. Mark my word, that slimy sneak can't be trusted." As if sensing Lea's gaze on him once more, Ignis glanced up with a courteous smile and nod in our direction. "Yeah, keep smirking, you smug bespectacled bastard. I'm onto you," Lea mumbled low enough that only I could hear him, but pointed two fingers at his eyes before redirecting those digits at Ignis, who just blinked before returning his focus to Saïx and whatever it was he was talking about.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, groaning, "You're ridiculous."

Lea looked at me now, banishing the dark look and grinning softly. "Heh… maybe…" Giving my hand a quick squeeze, he then pulled me towards him and brought my arms up to hug his neck before slipping his own arms around my waist. Nuzzling his nose lightly to mine, he conspiratorially whispered, "Let's bail."

My head rocked back at that. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me. This is a bust, El, so let's blow this popsicle stand. Slip out the door while their backs are still turned. Lookit what I still got," he removed one hand from my hip, shoving it down into his pocket before producing the car keys with a little jangle.

Only mildly surprised that his brother hadn't managed to recover those in their scuffle out front, I rolled my eyes, "Aren't you forgetting something?"

"What, ya mean Saïx? Eh, ditch him. Loser can hitchhike his dumb ass home."

I gave him a dull stare. "Still forgetting something _else_."

His lips pursed to one side as one eye squinted. Then it clicked. "Shit, you're right. Still don't have Saïx's code to start the car engine. Damn, guess that leaves us high and dry. Unless of course, _you_ happen to know the code," he chuckled with a shake of his head.

Biting down on my lower lip, I averted my gaze.

"Wait… do you?" his eyes narrowed suspiciously at me. I wrinkled my nose and still kept my mouth shut. "You do! Crap, why didn't ya say so earlier?"

I gave a noncommittal shrug, still avoiding eye contact. "You never asked."

"Oh, for the love of… why would he trust _you_ with the code and not me, his own _brother_ of all people?"

Now I met his gaze once more, raising one eyebrow. "...maybe because he knows I'd never use it to steal his car while we're hundreds of miles away from home?"

He gave me a flat look. "...okay, just because it's true, doesn't make that any less of a low blow."

"Moonglow pear, you say?" Ignis's voice suddenly picked up, drawing our attention back over to him. It seemed Saïx had just gifted him with that small bag he'd been carrying, which one could reasonably assume was filled with the aforementioned fruit. Ignis had pulled one out and was turning it over in his hand for a closer look. "Yes, I've heard of these and have been meaning to try them." He studied it for a few seconds more, then his eyes lit up and he snapped his fingers, "That's it! I've come up with a new recipe!" With that, he bustled back out through the hallway he'd come in through.

Smiling fondly after him, Aranea then glanced towards the rest of us once more and gestured towards a different corridor. "Why don't we continue this somewhere more comfortable like the living room, hm?" She turned to lead the way and Saïx did not hesitate to follow. I cocked my head at Lea in silent question and his face scrunched up in distaste, but then with a grumbling sigh, he released my waist, took my hand and we trailed after them as well.

The living room was big and filled with a homey, tidy clutter. The far wall had a giant sliding glass door that led out onto a wooden deck that overlooked a reasonably well-kept backyard. A massive entertainment unit took up another wall, housing a big screen TV amongst the ordered chaos that filled the rest of its shelves. Across from it were a few armchairs and one long, very comfy looking couch. Said couch was currently occupied.

The two boys looked to be teenagers - highschoolers, by my guess. Neither of them glanced up as we entered the room, just continued to concentrate on their phones as their thumbs tapped and swiped at their screens. The blonde one with freckles was sitting upside down with his knees hooked over the sofa's backrest and seemed _extra_ focused, licking one corner of his lips while his brow furrowed. The other guy with the black tousled hair, black shirt, black jacket, black _everything_ had taken up the rest of the couch by sprawling across it, propping his feet up on the armrest. He was a lot more apathetic as he stared at his own phone screen, even though his thumbs continued to be a blur of activity. Maybe he was just in "the zone."

"Look alive and make room on the sofa, boys. We got company," Aranea told them, coming to a stop next to the coffee table and planting one fist on her hip as she eyed them both.

They neither budged nor took their eyes off their smartphones. The blonde one did however chime in with, "Bah, it's just Saïx. Saïx's not company."

Her eyes narrowed with a flat, "Wanna run that by me again, Prom?"

"Lemme finish! He's not company cuz he's _family_. Yes!" he whooped the last part with a tiny fist pump as something good had apparently just happened in his phone game. Already, his thumbs were back on the move across his screen as he tacked on, "And family means never having to give up primo sofa real estate."

"Aw, what a sweet, half-hearted attempt at sentiment," Aranea cooed with a bat of her lashes before scoffing. "Nice try, bucko, now scoot."

With a grunt, he flipped over to sit on the couch properly and shifted closer to his armrest to make room, all while still staying fixated on his game - rather the impressive feat, I might add. The other boy however remained exactly where he was. "That goes for you too, Noct," she patted a hand to his shoes.

"In a minute," he mumbled, eyes narrowing slightly on his smartphone now as his thumbs started tapping more furiously.

"Not in a minute, _now_ ," she insisted sternly. Still he didn't move so much as an inch, not even bothering to reply this time. Aranea rolled her eyes, "Look, I know you fancy yourself a prince round here and like to lounge about like that couch is your throne and this house is your castle with everything the light touches in it your kingdom. But if you're the prince, that makes me the queen, so what I say goes. That means _move_ your princely _ass!_ " With that, she unceremoniously shoved his feet off the armrest.

"Hey!" he scrambled not to fall off the couch altogether, catching himself and sitting up next to Prom. Gritting his teeth as he looked at his phone again, he then puffed out a sigh of relief, "Whew, still got the Devil of the Cygillan on the line." And just like that, he was sucked back into it.

"Ah, the mortal struggle between man and virtual fish," Prom sniggered, gaze still trained on his own phone.

Aranea scrunched up her nose, "You two playing that silly game again? What's it called… King's Kite?"

"King's _Knight_ ," Prom corrected, tongue once again poking out of the corner of his mouth as his thumb mashed at the screen now. "And we _were_ , but then Noct decided to be lame and play his dumb fishing game instead."

"Ugh, lazing about like a couple of couch potatoes all day, doing nothing but staring at your phones for hours on end…" she grumbled, folding her arms together and shaking her head. "This is why neither of you boys have gotten laid yet."

I'll say this for Aranea... she seemed to have a rather, hrm… _unique_ approach to parenting.

Prom frowned, "'Scuse you, _I've_ just been scoping out my prospects, thank you very much."

"More like _stalking_ ," Noct snorted, squeezing one eye shut as he rapidly drew circles on his screen with a fingertip.

"Hey now, what Cindy and I have is _beautiful_ and I won't have you cheapening it by making it sound crude and perverted," he shot back with a small _hmph_.

Aranea quirked an eyebrow. "...and Cindy would be?"

"My Goddess of the Gears," Prom sighed dreamily. Eyes _still_ glued to his game, mind you.

Eyelids drooping, Noct clarified, "She works over at the Hammerhead Fuel and Garage."

Giving the ceiling a thoughtful squint for a few seconds, Aranea then blinked a couple times. "Wait, you talking about the blonde knockout? Oh, Prom, she's gotta be at least a whole second grader older than you and _way_ more woman than you could ever handle."

"Pretty sure she has a thing for Uncle Gladio too," Noct smirked.

Making an indignant noise in his throat, Prom scowled and freed up one of his hands to wave in front of Noct's phone, blocking line of sight to the screen as he spat out, "You shut your whore mouth!"

"Shit, Prom, _language!_ " Aranea snapped. As Noct used an elbow to knock Prom's hand away so he could salvage his game, Aranea puffed out an annoyed breath and turned to face us once more. "Sorry about them. These would be the rugrats… your lil brothers, Ax- _Lea_ ," she hastily corrected herself before jerking her thumb over her shoulder towards one, then the other. "Noctis. Prompto."

Right… I remember Lea mentioning something about his mother and her two-point-five kids. Did that mean that there was still another o-

_TWHUMP!_

The sound of a large throw pillow suddenly smacking Noctis in the face.

Courtesy of a little girl with brown eyes and short, dark hair who'd suddenly popped up out of hiding from behind the sofa armrest. She proceeded to shriek with laughter as she dashed off and made her getaway down a hallway, her cackling echoing off into the distance before a door slammed shut somewhere in the house.

Huh. Guess that'd make _her_ the point-five.

Wide-eyed and clenching his teeth, Noctis snatched up his phone from where he'd dropped it on the carpet after the vicious assault and frantically swiped the screen a few times. Then he glowered, slamming a fist down onto a couch cushion. "My line snapped and he got away. Dammit, Iris, I'm gonna _kill_ you!" he snarled, jumping to his feet and ready to charge after her.

"Hold it!" Aranea ordered and he froze before he could even take a single step. "You leave your sister alone and sit your butt back down, mister."

"But she-"

"Ah-ah!" she waggled a stern finger at him, then pointed down in a silent but firm command.

Growling, he threw himself into his seat once more, slumping down low and crossing his arms. "You all baby her too much, especially Uncle Gladio! She's such a brat!"

"Takes one to know one, eh Noct?" Prompto chuckled. Noctis shoved his shoulder hard and he shoved back before they both settled down and became engrossed in their phones again.

"Well?" Aranea prompted them, planting _both_ fists on her hips now, which I took to indicate she _really_ meant business. "It's not every day you meet your other long lost half-brother. Aren't you two gonna put away the phones long enough to at least say hello to Lea and his lil girlfriend, Elsa?" No response. Her right eye twitched. "Seriously, boys, turn off the phones and stick 'em down your pockets before I stick 'em up somewhere else."

Noctis was the first to comply, tucking his phone away with a tiny eye roll before tossing a hand up in a lazy wave towards us. "Hey. Nice to meet you."

Prompto on the other hand kept his phone out, merely taking a split second to shoot us a quick glance before focusing on the mobile device again with a, "He-" The word however got swallowed in a splutter as he did a double take at me, then hopped up to his feet so fast the phone went flying out of his hands. He fumbled to catch it and hastily pocketed it before stepping closer to me with a big grin and sheepish laugh, "He-he-hello there!" He cleared his throat and smoothed his hair, then continued more confidently, "What's shakin', Miss Breathtakin'? Name's Prompto, perhaps you've heard of me? I'm kinda legendary with the ladies around here." Insert wink and finger guns.

I just stared at him blankly.

What…

...was even _happening_ right now?

A wry snerk from Noctis. "Yeah, legendary for being a totally tongue-tied bonehead around them."

"Shush, man, be _cool_ ," Prompto hissed back over his shoulder at his brother. "Just cuz you're already tied down, doesn't mean you hafta always ruin it for the rest of us!"

"Tied d-" Noctis began to echo before cutting himself off with a huff and a tiny glare. "Luna and I are just friends!"

"Who ever said anything about Luna? _You're_ the one who brought her up," he singsonged back with a bounce of his eyebrows.

Snorting, Aranea moved to take a seat in the chair next to the far end of the sofa as she added, "You two lil lovebirds _have_ been practically engaged since you were in diapers."

Prompto declared triumphantly, "Exactly! So zip it, Noct! Now where was I…? Ah, yes." He turned back to me, reaching for my hand to plant a kiss to the back of it with a debonair, "Enchanté."

A groan escaped Aranea as she facepalmed. "Prom, stop hitting on your _brother's_ girlfriend."

"I don't see no ring, which means all's fair in love and-" the words abruptly died on his tongue as he looked past me and his eyes grew round, his face paled, and he gulped. Curious as to what had caused such a reaction, I glanced back myself to discover Lea looming behind me with _the_ darkest look I'd ever seen to grace his face aimed directly at Prompto. "Uh, heh… L-Lea, w-was it? N-Nice to m-make your acquaintance," he squeaked out before darting back to his spot on the couch and using Noctis for protective cover.

Hiding a grin behind her hand, Aranea gestured towards the freshly freed up seating, "You all gonna keep standing in the hallway? Go on, take a seat already."

Lea continued to give Prompto the evil eye as he and I settled into the now empty half of the sofa with me next to Noctis. Saïx took the armchair to Lea's right and with that, a hush descended over the room.

...a very drawn out, very awkward hush.

Now don't get me wrong, I am no stranger when it comes to uncomfortable family gatherings. My parents and I were on very, _very_ tentative speaking terms again and I'd recently been to a handful of uneasy dinners with them where silence had reigned supreme around the dining table. Of course, even before I'd ran out on my own wedding, back when I was still their perfect daughter that always did as she was told, even _then_ the Fryse household wouldn't exactly have been considered warm, friendly and inviting. It was just the way my family had always been - cold and distant.

But this home felt different. Here, the quiet felt unnatural and wrong. This seemed like a place that was normally filled with chatter and laughter, making its absence now very unsettling. _Especially_ with Lea in the room, who practically considered silence his arch nemesis and always felt the need to fill the void with his ramblings. In fact, until this very moment, I'd thought him physically incapable of keeping his mouth shut whenever there was a gap in conversation in desperate need of small talk. And yet there he sat now, slouched in the couch cushions, elbow on armrest and head propped up against his knuckles, lips clenched firmly shut and his pinched expression making it abundantly clear he would rather be _anywhere_ but here right now.

I glanced past him and made eye contact with Saïx. He merely frowned, flicked his gaze meaningfully towards Lea before looking back at me again.

Saïx wasn't going to be the one to speak up first. Afterall, he'd already long ago patched things up with his mother and was on speaking terms with her again. Now it was Lea's turn. However, Lea needed to at least make some small effort on his part.

But I'm not sure exactly what Saïx expected _me_ to do about that.

I hesitated, gnawing on my bottom lip for a few heartbeats. Then I lowered my gaze to where Lea's hand rested atop the cushion between the two of us. Slowly, I covered it with my own and he turned his head to look at me.

Alright, so… I've always heard about couples who are really close developing sort of this, I don't know… _relationship telepathy_ after they've been together long enough, to the point where a single glance between the two of them can communicate an entire conversation. Time to see if that theory held any water.

I took a deep breath, squared my shoulders and fixed him with a determined, steady stare.

_Talk to your mother. You hear me? Do it. Do it_ now.

He watched me blankly for a few seconds. Then one side of his mouth lifted and he gave me a tiny nod.

I blinked.

...did it work?

Had he actually received my otherworldly message?

His hand shifted to instead be the one on top of mine, giving it a gentle squeeze as the other reached over to graze my cheek with his thumb and tuck my bangs behind my ear while he bent to press a kiss to my forehead.

Gah, _no_ , you sweet but oblivious dope!

What, did he think the situation was stressing me out and I'd been seeking comfort?

...which, to be fair, was not an unreasonable assessment.

Puffing out a tiny, irked breath through my nose, I firmly locked gazes with him once more and jerked my head towards Aranea a couple times.

_Talk._

_To._

_Her._

_Dork._

More blank staring from Lea. But then it finally seemed to click, at least if the way his face twisted into a petulant grimace could be taken as any sort of clue. I responded by narrowing my eyes at him. He relented with a low sigh and at long last shattered the quiet with a, "So… Mom…" he paused, frowning as he rubbed at the nape of his neck and struggled to come up with something to say. "...how do you… keep yourself busy these days?"

A growling huff erupted from Saïx as he directed a dull look towards Lea. "You should know. I've told you before."

"And I wasn't listening," Lea shot back through his teeth, brutally blunt and not seeming to care. He toned it back a bit however as his eyes settled on his mother once more. "So what… ya do the whole suburban housewife, minivan driving, pep rallies and bakesales running, soccer mom thing now?"

Prompto burst out laughing at that. "This is _our_ mom we're talking about here, right? Please, you know how she is."

Lea glared daggers at him and he blanched, ducking down to hide behind Noctis once again. Looking away, Lea mumbled under his breath, "Oh yeah… know her _super_ well."

"I'm a process server," Aranea piped up and all eyes turned to her. "Ya know… those people who'll find you on the street, hand you legal papers and go, 'You've been served!' I'm pretty damn good at it too. I take care of all the tough cases, you know the type… those squirrelly, shifty-eyed motherfuckers who bolt at the first whiff of trouble, thinking they can outrun me." She smirked now, "Hehe… love it when they try to run."

"Mom's earned a bit of a reputation," Noctis added with a tiny grin. "People call her the Commodore."

Aranea chuckled at that with a smug, "Stop, you'll make me blush."

"Huh," was all Lea said at first, pursing his lips to one side. Don't think he quite knew what to do with this information. "...sounds… fulfilling."

And with that, a crushing silence stifled the room once more.

Okay, so… that'd worked well.

Sort of…

I mean, it'd worked _okay_.

At the very least, it'd _worked_.

They'd talked!

...for a grand total of two seconds… but still, that was something, right?

Oh who was I kidding, this was a total trainwreck.

So then… _now_ what?

Luckily, I was saved from having to figure that out by Ignis stepping into the living room just then, dusting his hands together as he announced, "That ought to do it for the moment! Now to let those steaks au poivre cook for a bit. Saïx!" The man in question glanced up at the mention of his name and Ignis went on, "If memory serves, I seem to recall you taking a rather keen interest in observing the night sky. Well, I'm a bit of dabbler myself and have recently acquired a new gadget to fiddle with. A telescope - the Ultros StarSeeker Reflector. It's in my study, would you like to come have a look at it for yourself?"

"The mark VI?" Saïx asked, already rising from his chair.

"The mark VII," he corrected with a smile. "150 millimeter. It's supposed to be the latest. Makes the moon seem so close, you'll think yourself to be standing on it. Boys," he now addressed Noctis and Prompto, "why don't you join us?"

"Already seen it. Pass," Noctis muttered, distracted by his phone once more.

Ignis cleared his throat, smile widening. "I must insist."

Prompto groaned, "Dad, can't we do it later? It's not even dark out."

"Alas, science waits for no man, nor do I. Elsa," his gaze landed on me now, "might I interest you in accompanying us as well?"

It was then that it dawned on me that Ignis was probably trying to give his wife some time alone with her (until as of twenty minutes ago) estranged son. Even as I opened my mouth to reply however, I felt Lea's grip tightening slightly around my hand. I hesitated.

I don't think he wanted me to leave.

Maybe I should have anyway. Maybe just a smidge of tough love was in order. Maybe it would have been for his own good.

However…

"I think I'm good, thank you," I politely declined.

With a small bow of his head, Ignis said, "Very well. Come along, boys!"

Heaving a heavy sigh, Noctis stood up and moved towards him. Prompto sprung up with a chipper, "Just a sec! I wanna snap a picture of this!" He darted past the two of us still seated on the couch, snagging Noctis by the elbow and Saïx by his sleeve and yanking them back over towards Lea. Then he fished out his phone before slinging one arm around Noctis and Saïx, forcing them to huddle in close and hunch down as he crouched to throw his other arm around Lea's shoulders. Awkwardly maneuvering his phone and pointing its camera at the four of them all squished together, he laughed, "Group shot of the four bros from different Joes but all from the same ho! Say cheese!"

As the flash went off, Aranea leaned forward in her armchair, her tone dangerously sweet as she asked, "All from the same _what_ , Prom?"

"Aw, Ma, c'mon, you know I don't mean it! It was just for the sake of the rhyme!" he brushed off as he released Saïx and Noctis, freeing up that hand to tap at his screen and double check that the photo came out well. "Lea, dude, you _so_ did not say cheese. I mean, look at th-" he glanced towards Lea (who he still had his arm around, mind you) and choked mid-word at the withering look he was giving him. Hastily snatching his arm back and jumping away, he turned to the others. "L-Let's go look at stars n' shit! Hell yeah constellations!" Then he all but blurred out of there with Ignis, Saïx and Noctis following behind him at a more relaxed pace.

"Seriously do _not_ like that kid," Lea grumbled low as he scowled after him before looking back at me. More specifically, at my tiny grin I was rubbing my curled fingers over. He cocked an eyebrow, "...what?"

"Oh nothing," I whispered back with a shake of my head, trying to school my expression and failing. "It's just… well, he reminds me a little of you, is all."

He stiffened, looking outright offended. "You gotta be joking. That punk? We're _nothing_ alike."

Said one upbeat, flirty goofball about the other.

My grin twitched wider as I merely shrugged, "If you say so."

Our brief exchange had me almost forgetting it wasn't just the two of us in here. Now as I glanced over towards Aranea, I gave her a timid smile. She smiled back, shifted in her seat and crossed her legs, but said nothing. Lea continued to avoid meeting her eyes, frowning off into space as his knee restlessly jiggled up and down while he held my hand in his lap, his fingers idly fidgeting with mine.

The quiet stretched.

I had to wonder if maybe I _should_ have left with the others. If I weren't here this very second, would they be talking now? Could it have really made a difference? Honestly, I don't think it would have. Lea had already tried to start a conversation once. Sure, it'd been a rather feeble, halfhearted attempt at that, but still the effort had been made. And now he was done. He had no interest in doing it again and seemed perfectly content to go on stewing in silence. As for Aranea, I may have known her for less than an hour now, but even in such a short amount of time I could tell she was not someone who was particularly shy about speaking her mind. If she had something she wanted to say to Lea, I very much doubted _my_ presence would have stopped her in the slightest.

I think the two of them were just… _stuck_.

In some sort of limbo with zero clue of how to proceed or handle this situation.

...should I try relationship telepathy again?

No, judging by the stubborn set to his jaw, it seemed highly unlikely at this point that any amount of mental nudging or prodding would push Lea into being the first one to speak up.

...but maybe a different target would be slightly more receptive to some subtle psychic persuasion?

I slowly turned my gaze on Aranea once more. With a tiny inhale and exhale, I hitched my chin and squinted.

Here goes nothing.

_Speak to your son. Say something._ Anything _. Just_ talk _._

A brief pause, then I winced.

_Uh… please?_

Musn't forget manners when trying to pierce the cosmic veil to telepathically coerce your boyfriend's mother!

_That is, er… if it's not too much trouble, ma'am?_

Gah, what if she thought being called ma'am was insulting?!

_N-not ma'am! You're not a ma'am! I meant Aranea- no, too overly familiar… um… Mom? Dear_ god _, no! Commodore? Yes, Commodore!_

I almost saluted her for good measure, but thankfully caught myself before I did. _That_ would have been silly!

...as if me attempting to psychically communicate with the woman weren't already silly enough.

Lea was right. I really was a friggin' kook.

Ah well, in for a penny, in for a pound.

_Please, just… talk to him, okay? Talk to-_

"So, Elsa…"

No, not me! Him! _Him!_ For the love of… what, were our metaphysical wires getting crossed? Ignore me, talk to-

Ugh, forget it, I give up.

Consider my brief and not at all glorious career as a mystical telepath officially over.

She grinned at me as she continued, "...are you still a college student?"

"Oh!" I sat up a little straighter. "No… er, I mean, _yes_. I mean… rather, I've graduated. But… it wasn't for me. My major, that is. So I went back, and… and now it's a much better fit." A beat. Then I gasped, " _Acting!_ That's my new… that's what I'm doing now! What I, ah… what I went back to college for," I breathed out an awkward little laugh.

Wondering why was I suddenly so nervous?

Oh I don't know… could it be that it was just now _really_ sinking in that this was officially my "Meet The Parents" visit? I was in no way prepared for this! I mean come on, she was supposed to be focusing on _Lea_ , not me! Crud, I just hoped I was making a halfway decent impression so far.

"You wanna be an actor, huh? Get into showbiz?" she nodded encouragingly.

Oh, we were _still_ talking about me? We weren't done?

Fudge.

"Maybe… I think so…" No wait, that wasn't quite right. Lifting my chin and steeling my gaze, I said more firmly, "Yes. It's… something I'm actually quite passionate about. Both singing and acting. It's a childhood dream I hope that perhaps I might one day turn into a reality."

Her eyes crinkled and she nodded again. "Been in any productions?"

"Two. Well… rather, one and a half I suppose… I'm in rehearsals for my second show. It's only community theater mind you, I'm still learning," I tacked on shyly.

It occurred to me that maybe this _was_ her way of reaching out to Lea. I mean, a common tactic for connecting with someone was talking about something they liked. And seeing as how I was his girlfriend, it stood to reason that Lea liked me. So maybe, in a way… talking to me was her trying to score points with Lea?

Gaining a bit of confidence, I went on, "We're putting on Rocky Horror Picture Show, what with Halloween coming up and all. I got the part of Columbia, which is a _supporting_ role but still very exciting!"

"Oooo, Rocky Horror you say? The one with all the tight leather, fishnet stockings, and lacey corsets?" Her eyes shifted slyly over to Lea as she shot him a wink, "Betcha you're a big fan of your girlfriend starring in _that_."

Lea's face twisted in disgust, "Ugh, _Mom_ , don't be gross about it."

For the record, he was a big fan of it.

A really, _really_ big fan.

She chuckled at his obvious discomfort before her eyes suddenly lit up as a thought seemed to strike her. "Speakin' of Halloween… be right back," she smirked, quickly standing up and disappearing down one of the hallways.

"Quick, now's our chance, let's make a break for it!" Lea leapt up to his feet, but I used the hold I still had on his hand to yank him back down into the cushions next to me. He drooped his eyelids at me. I drooped mine right back. With a huff, he slumped further down into the sofa and straight up sulked.

It wasn't long before Aranea returned, now with a pair of stacked cardboard boxes weighing down her arms. She deposited them onto the coffee table with a heavy thud, blowing off some dust before turning them so we could see there was something written in sharpie on their sides. Aranea shifted the top one branded _SA_ _ÏX_ off and settled it down next to the other box that had _AXEL_ scrawled across it. Lea's glower darkened as he spotted that particular label.

Flipping the lid off that one, Aranea began rooting around inside. "Hm, lessee here… blankie?" she muttered, mostly to herself it seemed as she then shook her head and shifted more things around in the box. "No… binkie? No…"

"What are you doing?" Lea asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at her.

"What's it look like I'm doing? Going through a few odds and ends I kept from when you were a tyke," she grinned at him before pulling something out and holding it up. "D'aww look… baby's first arson!" In her hands was the charred and blackened remains of some sort of stuffed animal. She cocked her head slightly as she scrutinized the thing, "Think it used to be a rabbit… or maybe a piglet?"

"Tiger!" Lea snapped as he snatched the thing out of her grip. "He was a _tiger_ and his name was-" he suddenly stopped, glaring at the mutilated little plushie for a second. Then he chucked it back into the box, grumbling, "Doesn't matter."

I however reached in to pick it back up for a closer look at it myself, brow furrowing as I turned the roasted to a crisp little feline over in my hands. "...what did you _do_ to this thing?"

"Happened when he was four. Just happily tromped the doll over to the burning fireplace and tossed it in before I even realized what the lil snot was up to," Aranea chuckled wistfully before returning to digging around in the box. Next she was lifting out what looked to be a clay mold of a child's handprints as she snerked, "Can you imagine him ever being this small? Crazy." Then she was frowning at it, lightly scratching a finger at one blackened corner of the plaque as she arched an eyebrow. "Huh. Looks like you scorched this a bit too."

Shrugging, she set it aside before taking another look into the box, her face brightening. "Ah, and here we have Lea's masterpiece collection." She stuck her hands back inside it, this time retrieving a handful of crude drawings on slightly crumpled papers. To me, she said, "Ya know, he was quite the lil arteest! Coulda been the next Picasso if he'd just…" she trailed off, distracted now as something caught her eye on the top drawing. She squinted, "...is that a tree that's on fire?" Flipping to the next sheet, she blinked. Then the next. Then the next. "Yeesh, kiddo, you really had a thing for fire when you were a tot. Maybe I shoulda been more worried." Then she brushed it off with a bat of her hand, "Bah, you turned out fine!"

Rummaging around in the box a bit more, she gave a victorious, "Ah-ha!" before pulling out a thick stack of photos. She took a second to shuffle through a few of them before showing us one, "First day of kindergarten." I took it from her, seeing as Lea showed zero interest in accepting it himself. I couldn't help a small smile as I looked at it. He really had been an adorable child, almost ridiculously so. "Second birthday." I glanced up at her words to see her holding out another photo, which I gladly took as well.

She thumbed through a couple more photos before, "Oh, here we go." Plucking one from the bunch, her fingers gave it a satisfied flick before turning it towards us with a half-grin. "The whole reason I remembered to dig up this box just now: Halloween photos! Didn't he just make the cutest lil ninja assassin?"

He really did.

"Mom," Lea abruptly spoke up, his tone low and even and… something _else_ that made the hairs on the back of my neck suddenly stand on edge. "...why do you have all this stuff?"

"Hm?" she hummed absently, already back to flipping through the photos.

There was a pause, then he quietly rephrased, "When did you have time to grab it?"

"Oh, I just-" she cut herself off, posture suddenly snapping straight as she grimaced slightly. Her eyes darted to Lea then quickly looked away. Putting the photos down on the coffee table, she cleared her throat and began again, "I took it all with me when…" Another pause, another frown. "...when I…"

"When you abandoned Saïx and me," he finished for her, the edge to his voice unmistakable now. "So… instead of taking me with you when you flew the coop… you took a box."

Uh oh.

"Lea, that's not…" she began, then stopped, lips pressing into a grim line and face pinching as she stared down at her lap for a second. Then she lifted her gaze once more, opened her mouth to speak but clicked it shut again with a tiny growl in her throat, clearly frustrated with herself for being unable to think of the right thing to say.

Her son on the other hand seemed to be having absolutely zero trouble finding his own words, still with a deadly calm to them. "So... what? After dumping Saïx and me like yesterday's garbage, you took the boxes just so you could put on a show that you ever gave a shit about us?"

She gave him a sharp look, her eyes flashing dangerously. "That isn't fair, I-"

"Fair?!" he was on his feet in the blink of an eye, his hands balling into fists at his sides. Nostrils flaring, his voice began to rise now, "No, what wasn't _fair_ was you deciding you didn't want your goddamn _kids_ anymore and leaving them behind to go off and start your new stupid, perfect life and your new stupid, perfect family filled with perfect little snot-nosed brats given to you by your fucking perfect orthodontist!"

Optometrist. _Not_ orthodontist.

Should I correct him?

I decided against it.

(Rather wisely too, if I do say so myself.)

Standing up as well now, Aranea tried to argue, "It wasn't like that! I-"

"Then please! By all means, tell me what it was like!" he snarled back. Two fingers jabbed at his temple, "I'd simply freaking _love_ to know how you rationalized this all away in that screwed up head of yours so you could sleep at night in your comfy, cushy tempur-fucking-pedic king-sized bed while Saïx and I got chewed up and spat out by the hellhole that is the foster system! Tell me, how the fuck is what you did to us okay?!"

"It wasn't okay! Shit, of _course_ it wasn't and I'd never try to tell you that it was!" she yelled, her breathing heavy now as she lifted her chin slightly. "But… you have to understand, it was… _I_ was still young and-"

Lea barked a cold laugh at that. "Young? Seriously? _That's_ your go-to defense? You wanna talk young, Saïx was eight. For fuck's sake, I was _six_." He shook his head, sneering, "But no, you're right. You were _young_ , so let's just forget it and continue sitting around getting all bogus nostalgic over a buncha meaningless crap in a box while pretending everything's fine and dandy and like you didn't royally fuck over our whole goddamn lives twenty years ago."

Shoulders tensing, Aranea shot back, "Damn it, if you'd just let me _talk_ -"

"You had your chance to talk!" he shouted over her. "You've been talking nonstop since I walked through the front door and it's all been nothing but bullshit and rubbing my nose in your happy, cozy, picture-fucking-perfect lifestyle!"

"That's not- I never meant to-" she blew out an exasperated huff, pinching the bridge of her nose as she took a second to compose herself. Then, more softly if a bit strained, "Look, _obviously_ I'm no good at this. But I'm _trying_ here."

"Yeah? Well not hard enough," he ground out through his teeth. He took several deep breaths, hands clenching and unclenching repeatedly. When he at last spoke again, his voice was now hushed and thick with unshed tears, "Were you ever even sorry for what you did? Did you ever even have any regrets at all?"

Her eyes widened as her head rocked back. "Of course I had regrets-"

"No, you had a box! Just a dumb _box!_ " he smacked said box off the coffee table, sending it crashing to the floor and spilling its contents across the rug. With that, he stormed over to the sliding glass door, throwing it open and stomping out onto the backyard deck.

As he slammed it shut again behind him, the sharp noise jolted a breath out of me that I hadn't realized I'd been holding. It was only then that I noticed how loud the pounding of my heart was in my ears, how tense my muscles were or how tightly my fingers were clutching at the skirt of my dress. Forcing myself to relax a bit, I released my grip and anxiously brushed out the wrinkles in the fabric as my gaze drifted towards Lea once more.

I could see him out there now, hands angrily ruffling at his hair as he paced back and forth. Honestly, his blow up probably shouldn't have come as any sort of shock. This was something that he'd been carrying with him for years now, an anger that had been building inside for two decades and in desperate need of release. It probably really hadn't even been a question of _if_ he would explode, but _when_.

A loud scoff drew my attention over to Aranea who was also watching Lea, a little scowl twisting her features. Squaring her shoulders, she started marching over towards the sliding glass door grumbling, "Oh-ho, if you think this is over, you got another thing coming, you lil-"

"Wait," a new voice calmly commanded, freezing her in her tracks. I glanced towards where it'd come from to discover Saïx in the threshold to the hallway, frowning and arms crossed with one shoulder leaned against the inside of the arch. I wondered how long he'd been standing there unnoticed, how much of the fight he'd witnessed. Probably most of it. Pushing himself away from the wall and walking towards her, he reasoned, "You'll probably only set him off again. Allow me. Perhaps I can get him to cool down a bit first before coming back inside to continue your discussion more rationally."

Aranea's face scrunched up at the idea of having to back down for the moment but then she sighed heavily and stepped aside, letting Saïx pass. Soon he was outside with his brother, the door gliding quietly shut in his wake. Aranea stood there for a few seconds more, eyes narrowing as she watched them through the glass before turning away with a tiny _hmph_. "That knucklehead has more Reno in him than he'll ever know," she muttered sourly under her breath. Then she looked at me. "...excuse me, I… I need a minute." She stalked towards one of the other doors, pausing long enough to add over her shoulder, "Sorry… that you had to see that…"

"No, that's, uh… don't mention it," I said awkwardly, my voice small.

With a curt nod, she made her exit.

Peering outside once more, it unfortunately appeared like Saïx wasn't making any headway in pacifying Lea. Though the closed door muffled it, Lea was quite visibly yelling again as he gestured furiously back at the house. Saïx looked remarkably unruffled as he withstood the tirade and every now and again, I would see his lips move whenever he got a chance to squeeze in a few words, face expressionless as he did so. But if he'd intended for whatever he was saying to be soothing, it seemed to only be having the opposite effect as Lea kept bursting out into more impassioned rants. Though it was hard to tell, there was a slight twitch to Saïx's eye now that hinted at him getting more irked with each new outburst.

Finally, Lea just hotly tossed his hands up and turned his back on Saïx, kicking at the wooden railing of the deck. It seemed Saïx had had enough himself for he too turned away, pushing the glass door aside so he could come back in. As he pulled it closed with more force than necessary, he seethed, "I give up. Possibly _you'll_ have better luck convincing that idiot to get his head out of his ass." Without waiting for my reply, he crossed the room in a muted huff and was gone.

I bit my bottom lip, hesitating for a heartbeat. Then I rose, hands smoothing up and down my dress as I slowly stepped towards the door leading out to the backyard. My hand reached out for the handle, stopping just short for a second as I inhaled and exhaled slowly. Then I grabbed hold, slid it open and stepped outside.

Lea was facing away from me, surveying the backyard as he bent forward slightly with hands braced atop the railing. A light breeze picked up, tugging at his crimson spikes and making them dance. By contrast, his whole body was very still, almost eerily so. His muscles were taut and there was a stiffness to his shoulders that was impossible to miss. His fingers squeezed around the railing to the point of practically turning his knuckles white.

No question about it. He was still very much pissed.

It was almost strange, in a way… I was so used to him always being such a boundless source of energy and joy. I'd only ever seen him get angry one other time and that was when Grandfather had tried to bribe him during that disastrous weekend with my family. Even then, it hadn't lasted long and paled in comparison by far to his temper now. It was odd seeing him like this. Unsettling even. But I understood. I knew Lea's mom had always been a sore spot for him, so I was actually almost kind of amazed things had remained civil for as long as they had.

In a way, it was maybe even a good thing he'd went off like he did. You know… cathartic. Better he have a chance to rant and get all those things he'd probably been wanting to say to her for years off his chest, rather than keeping it all bottled up inside to fester.

But now it was time to pick up the pieces, pull him back together and maybe possibly even get him talking with his mother again, hopefully in a more constructive way.

...but how to do that exactly?

I just stood there in a moment of silent uncertainty, staring at his back as I tugged and twisted at my braid. But the longer I watched Lea, the more my heart squeezed at the sight of him. At how dejected and unhappy he appeared, his raw emotions practically etched into every line of his body. Eventually, my feet made the decision for me and I took an almost instinctual step towards him. Then another, and another one after that.

When I was close enough, my hand seemingly of its own accord reached out to softly touch his back. As soon as my fingertips made contact, his whole body went visibly rigid, even more so than it already had been. I brought my other hand up to join the first and slid them slowly around his middle as I took one final step forward to hug him from behind, resting my cheek against his warm back and closing my eyes as I listened to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat.

It took a few seconds, but then I felt the tension in his muscles start to ease as he gradually relaxed into the embrace and my hold around him reassuringly tightened. I had to let go however when he abruptly turned towards me, his arms encircling my waist to hug me fiercely to him. My arms shifted up to wrap around his shoulders instead as he buried his face in my neck, inhaling deeply and exhaling a couple times. I could feel him trembling, but with each steadying breath he took it subsided little by little.

I wasn't quite sure what to say or do beyond holding him and tracing light soothing circles along his back, hoping he found it as comforting as I always had whenever he'd done it for me so many times in the past. I patiently waited and just assumed he'd eventually open up when he was ready.

When he eventually did speak, it was so low and muffled against my throat that I almost didn't hear it. "...sorry, El… if I scared you..."

I shook my head slightly, my fingers shifting up to stroke his hair as I murmured, "Scared? No. A bit startled? Maybe… Concerned? Definitely." I tucked in my bottom lip for a hushed moment, then asked, "...are you okay?"

At first Lea said nothing, his only reply coming in the form of squeezing me more tightly to him. We stayed that way a few seconds more before his hold loosened but didn't let go - just enough for him to straighten up and press his forehead to mine. His gaze was downcast and my chest ached at how miserable he looked. His lips parted once more but instead of answering my question, he grumbled, "What she did was wrong."

"It was," I said calmly with a single small nod.

"She doesn't deserve my forgiveness," he tacked on, still quiet but more firmly now.

I noticed tears brimming at the corner of his eyes. Moving my hands to cup his face, I gently wiped them away with my thumbs as I agreed, "She doesn't."

"Serve her right if I never spoke to her again," he gave a tiny scowl.

Again, I nodded. "It would."

Now his green gaze locked on mine, squinting for a second before he puffed out a heavy, bitter sigh. "...but _you_ think I _should_ talk to her, don't you?"

My eyes lowered briefly and I pursed my lips to one side as I tried to choose my next words carefully. Then I looked back up at him, "I think… that you've had your turn to speak your mind, so maybe... it might be the right thing to do to give her a turn as well."

Lea merely made a noise of derision deep in his throat, glancing away.

I used the hold I still had on his face to gently make him look at me again. "I'm not saying you have to let her off the hook. Nor that you have to see her side of things. Nor even that you have to listen to her really. But I believe letting her speak and say whatever it is she was trying to tell you… maybe it could do some good. For _both_ of you. And then... " I paused with a thoughtful frown. "...well, I'm actually not really sure what then, but... maybe the way forward will be clearer once you've both had a chance to talk. You'll never know until you try. And it's at least worth a _try_ , isn't it?"

His expression softened somewhat, but not completely. "...how very logical, insightful and sensible of you, Doctor Phil."

I made a little snort at that. "Why, thank you."

"It wasn't a compliment." The words had no bite to them and were more so just tiredly teasing. He then fell silent for a moment, seemingly mulling over my advice while still holding me against him, his thumb absently rubbing up and down where it rested against the small of my back. Then his face pinched slightly and he harrumphed. "...she never even said she was sorry for what she did."

"Maybe she would have if you hadn't kept talking over her," I lightly pointed out with a wrinkle of my nose.

He hummed a weak, almost inaudible laugh at that. "There ya go with that logic again." He then heaved another sigh, "...I dunno… I guess maybe I can go back inside and…" he slowly closed his eyes and grimaced, as if even the very _idea_ of his next words turned his stomach. "...give this a shot. Chances are good though it'll just end up being the sequel to the earlier shitshow," he rolled his eyes.

I tugged his head down and got on tiptoe, murmuring against his brow as I pressed my lips to it, "I'd expect nothing less."

As I lowered myself back down onto my heels, Lea brought a hand up to graze his knuckle tenderly along my cheek, giving me that soft look of his that still to this day caused my heart to flip-flop and made it hard to breathe. Then his fingers trailed past along my jawline to cup the back of my neck as he bent down to kiss me, slow and thorough, sending a heat through me that made me melt from the inside out. When he at last pulled away, his voice was husky against my lips as he said, "Thanks, El... for coming with me today. Having you here during… It makes everything a bit easier."

Face hot and feeling a bit breathless, I cleared my throat and smiled shyly. "Happy to, uh… to _help_ … in whatever small way I can."

He grinned, his fingers toying with the tip of my braid as he gazed down at me for a second longer before he planted a quick peck to my lips. Then he was releasing me, taking hold of my hand instead and tangling our fingers together. Blowing out a breath that flapped his lips, he muttered, "Right. Back into the fray for round two now, ding-ding."

"Maybe try _not_ going back into this expecting a fight?" I suggested as I felt a sudden buzz from my phone in my pocket. I went on as I fished it out to check my notifications, "Never know, it could possibly even-" The words however got strangled in my throat as my eyes widened, I nearly dropped my phone and I gasped out, "Baby!"

"Yes, Cuddlebug?" he cooed back.

I blinked at him. "Wha-? No, not _you_. I meant _Rayne_."

Lea looked positively scandalized. "You have _other_ Babies besides _me?_ " He clutched a hand to his chest, "The _betrayal_."

"No, I- That's not- _She's_ not-" I stammered out before giving up with a groan of frustration and then shoved my phone up against his nose, reiterating more desperately, " _Baby!_ "

His brow furrowed as he took it from me, eyes quickly scanning the open text message before both eyebrows shot up his forehead. "Holy shit, Raindrop's gone into labor?! I thought she wasn't s'posed to pop that kid out for another few weeks!"

"Well she's popping it out _now!_ " My spine snapped straight as a thought struck me. "Like… _now_ now! While she's _there!_ And we're _here!_ But we _shouldn't_ be here! We should be _there_ , not here! _Definitely_ not here! We-"

"Shh, it'll be fine, I gotcha," he gently shushed me, one of his hands gripping my shoulder and the other coming up to rest his warm palm against the side of my face. "I'll put the fam drama on pause and we can hit the road ASAP."

"...really?" I asked slowly, uncertainly. "...that would be okay?"

He gave a soft snerk and shrugged. "It's waited twenty years already, I think it'll be fine waiting a lil bit longer. 'Sides, it's not every day our friends are having a baby, we should be there."

I turned my head slightly, giving him some side-eye. "And I'm sure this in no way is you hopping on the first excuse you could get to procrastinate sorting things out with your mother like a mature adult."

"Nah, that's just a bonus!" he chuckled.

I fought a tiny grin. But then it swiftly faded, a crease forming between my eyebrows now as something else occurred to me. "But we're so far away… it took us most of the day to get here!"

"The way I drive, we'll be back in half that," he wickedly smirked, digging the car keys out of his pocket, tossing them up into the air and catching them with a wink. "Just leave it to me! Now c'mon, babydoll, let's say our hasta la vistas then make like a piñata and beat it!"

With that, he took my hand in his again, opened the sliding glass door and we hurried inside.

* * *

_**Author's Note:** _ _We've had plenty of Elsa's fam drama by now, figured it was high time for some of Lea's fam drama too xD Plus we all know our fave Fire Boi can have a bit of a temper even if he doesn't let it loose often, so it was fun to finally have a excuse to REALLY show that side of him in this fic! Luckily our ICE Queen was around to COOL our FIRE boi's HOT temper... hehehehehe xD Anyhoo, I knew for a while that I wanted to do a chapter with Lea's mom and her new family, but I was mega stumped on which characters would play the parts. For the longest time, I wasn't sure if I was gonna include any of the FFXV cast in my story (except for the brief reference to Meteor Publishing and Vyv allllllll the way back in chapter 2 as to where Rayne works and who her boss is respectively) but then when this idea came up, it really was too perfect! Aranea is just the right amount of sass and kickass that could totes be a perfect fit for Lea's and Saïx's mom! She even TALKS a lot like Lea with similar speech mannerisms and everything, or so you'll notice if you rewatch her video game cutscenes (as I have multiple times while writing this chapter now lol!). The main struggle was that she has a tendency to be quite flirty in the video game, but seeing as how 4 of the 5 men in this chapter were her SONS, couldn't really have her doing that except for with Iggy xD Hopefully I still managed to capture her personality well enough! And of course, including 3 of the 4 Chocobros was a pleasure to write! Plus, I got to squeeze in SO MANY FFXV references this chapter, it felt ridiculous after a while, but I couldn't help myself xD And bonus: in case it wasn't clear in that one quick sentence that was tossed out, turns out Reno was Lea's biological dad! Which sucks a lil cuz that means Reno is deceased in this AU and I hate to do that to another one of my fave redheads... but ah well! Who knows, maybe he only faked his death all those years ago and he's still out there alive and kicking and wreaking havoc xD_

_Teeny fun facts: I wrote that Lea's new step dad was an orthodontist waaaaaaay back in ch15 before I even knew Iggy was gonna be his step dad, so when I was rereading that for this chapter, I was all "shiiiit, I can't make Iggy an orthodontist, ew!" xD Optometrist didn't seem THAT much better, but hey, at least the dude wears glasses - that's all ya need to become a licensed optometrist, right? xP At least the whole orthodontist-optometrist thing made for a pretty decent running gag this chapter haha! Also, the telescope was based off a real telescope model I found after some googling, just the original brand was named after some sort of constellation, I forget what (...Orion? maybe?). So I changed THAT to one of the constellations from KH3: Ultros! ...because it was the best sounding one for a telescope - sorry, no Cactuar brand telescopes in this story xP_

_No clues or hint word/phrase this time for what the next one-shot is gonna be about - given the kinda sorta cliffhanger I left his chapter off on, you can probably guess what blessed event is gonna happen next time xD Don't worry, I'll try to throw in a couple of surprises for you still that you hopefully won't see coming!_

_Thank you so much for reading, especially to those of you who have left a kudos and shared with me your thoughts and feelings on this story so far! Remember, feedback is not only welcome, but highly encouraged and super appreciated!_


	36. Chapter 36

Ice chips.

A whole paper cup full of them.

This was my current mission. My purpose. My whole reason for existence in this one very specific moment in time.

For if every wholesome, family-friendly sitcom from the 90s were to be believed, ice chips were like crack to women in labor - they just couldn't get enough of the stuff.

Why? No one knows, least of all me… okay, maybe doctors knew but if they did, not a single one had yet to clear up _that_ little mystery for me.

The why didn't really matter anyway. All that mattered is that Rayne wanted them. And what Rayne wanted, Rayne got.

_Especially_ when she was about to shove a brand new tiny person through her body and out into the world any second now.

...at least, in _theory_ anyway.

I thanked the attendant at the nurse station and turned with the freshly secured cup of ice chips in hand, heading down the hospital wing back in the direction of Rayne's room in the delivery ward. As I hurried along, I anxiously ran my free hand down my frazzled braid, grimacing at all the little wisps coming loose before shifting to smooth my fingers along my rumpled dress that I'd been wearing since yesterday. Turning one last corner, my eyes immediately went to Rayne's door-

-only to be brought up short by the sight of fluffy, squishy, huggable reindeer plushie nearly twice my size already waiting politely outside it.

Well _there_ was something you don't see every day.

It only took me a second to spot the shoes poking out underneath that had to belong to whoever was holding the thing from behind where I couldn't see them. I squinted.

I knew those shoes.

With a tiny, tired smile, I put one foot forward once more and approached the giant stuffed caribou with a lightly teasing, "If you're looking for the North Pole, you're off by about a couple thousand miles, Prancer. Or is it Blitzen?"

"Har, har. You're an absolute riot," came a voice from the other side of the massive doll. Though I couldn't see the eye roll, I could distinctly hear it in his tone.

Shaking my head with a soft snort, I dug my phone out of my pocket to check the time. "...1 p.m. already? Can't believe she's been in labor for nearly twenty-one hours." Twenty-one extremely long, extremely _sleepless_ hours for the mother-to-be, not to mention all her loved ones here to support her. Tucking the phone away once more, I told him, "Thanks again for covering my early shift, I really appreciate it. Hope it wasn't too hectic of a morning over at the Ice Palace."

"Hey, don't mention it," Kristoff poked his blonde head up just over the plushie's shoulder. "If it's a choice between the two of us, it's no contest: Rayne'd much rather have you here with her than me." He paused, eyeing the closed door leading into her hospital room with a tiny frown. "...so, still no baby, huh?"

"Still no baby," I sighed, then tipped my head to one side. "Care to explain the reindeer? I didn't even know we made Svens in this size."

"We don't," he shifted his hold on the thing for a better grip. "We got a small batch to try and sell as a test run last year, but no one was really buying 'em. Still had a couple stowed away in back just gathering dust, so got the okay from Frozone to steal one for welcoming the new little Hewley into the world."

A grin pulled at my lips, "How sweet. I'm sure Rayne will love it." I then quirked an eyebrow at him. "...why were you just standing outside with it anyway? You know you could have just walked on in, right?"

His gaze darted to the door once again, then back to me. "...is the yelling still happening?" he whispered with a nervous little wince.

Now it was my turn to roll my eyes as I deadpanned, "It's the beautiful blessed miracle of life, Kristoff. Rayne's allowed to yell as much as she wants. Now come on, there's already one baby on the way, we don't need you being a big old second one." With that, I reached for the door knob, pushed it open and made my way inside.

And straight into the madhouse that was Rayne's hospital room.

" _You did this to me, you bastard! I'm gonna KILL you for this, you smug son of a bitch!_ "

Ah, and there was Rayne now, shrieking her head off.

To be fair, if _you'd_ been in labor for nearly a full day now, you'd probably be shrieking your head off too.

"Yes, hon."

And that'd be Riku, the absolute picture of patience and composure as he smiled lovingly through the abuse, both verbal and physical as Rayne's death grip just _had_ to be murder on his hand right now. But he was soldiering through it like a champ.

Huffing and puffing, Rayne spat, "Don't you 'yes hon' me with that stupid, sexy, annoying, beautiful, infuriatingly _perfect_ little grin of yours, pal! When I'm through with you, you won't have anything to grin about!"

"Yes, hon," he chuckled softly, gently sweeping a few of her messy bangs out of her face before pressing a light kiss to her sweaty temple.

"Oh-ho, no! None of _that!_ " she snarled, narrowing her eyes at him. "It's stuff like that that started this whole damn mess, jerkface!"

"Yes, hon."

We were all handling being included in this special moment in Rayne's life a bit differently, each doing what we could to keep her happy and distracted from the contractions. As could be seen, Riku was doing his part by being a flawless model husband/punching bag combo. Sora-

"What does every moogle need in the morning?"

Sora was trying to make her laugh.

"A kup-o coffee!"

...and was doing a rather poor job of it.

As Rayne stared blankly up at him, Sora gave a tiny sheepish laugh from where he stood at the foot of her hospital bed as he scratched the back of his head. "That one was a dud, huh? Okay, okay, how about this one? What do moogles use when they go shopping? ...Kupons!"

More crickets from Rayne. This time accompanied with an unamused little eye squint.

Undeterred, Sora smiled brightly and held up his hands, "Wait, wait, I gotta million of these! What did one cactuar say to the other? ...looking sharp! What does a cactuar wear to a business meeting? ...A cac-tie!" Why did the chocobo cross the road? ...he was going for a _wark!_ "

His new rapid fire approach did not seem to be helping matters.

"Alright, no, hang on, I'm gonna get you with this one for sure! You ready? Okay… Knock knock."

Rayne's eye twitched. Patting her hand, Riku obliged his cousin with a sigh, "Who's there?"

Barely able to contain his glee now, Sora replied, "Interrupting chocobo."

"Interrupting ch-"

" _BWARK_!" Sora crowed in delight.

The expecting mother-to-be looked just about ready to hurl the beeping heart monitor at him.

"Look, Ray, look!" Kairi suddenly chimed in, swiftly coming to her boyfriend's rescue as she shoved her phone in Rayne's face. For her contribution in keeping Rayne's mind off the pain, Kairi had elected to sit in the bed with her to provide cuddles and hundreds upon hundreds of pictures of adorable baby animals. "Aren't these little piggy-wiggies the freaking cutest?"

Frowning at the screen, Rayne said flatly, "...they'd look even cuter in the form of crispy bacon on a bun slathered in barbecue."

Kairi gasped in horror, snatching her phone back to hug protectively to her chest, "Not the piggy-wiggies!"

"Sorry, Kai, but I'm _starving_ and they won't let me eat a damn thing until this little bundle of joy gets the hell out of me," she grumbled back.

She pursed her lips to one side, swiping her thumb across the screen several times now, "Guess I'll skip these pics of baby cows and chicks and- you know what? No farm animals at all, how about that?"

Sora was now sidling up along one side of the bed opposite to Riku, both hands covering his face as he went.

Oh dear.

One could only assume this was leading up to his latest attempt to get a laugh out of her and I was almost dreading how the next couple seconds would unfold.

"No frowning. No sad face. Okay?" he muffled out from between fingers as he blindly inched closer to Rayne. "This birth runs on happy faces, so ya gotta look funny… like me!" He suddenly threw his hands out wide to reveal he was wearing a pair of gag glasses, complete with a comically large plastic nose and mustache. "I-"

Rayne yelped in surprise and socked him in the stomach.

Yup. That'd gone about as well as I'd expected.

And correction… it seemed the role of punching bag would now be played by Sora.

Quite literally.

Eyes growing round as she clasped both hands over her mouth, Rayne said, "Oh god, Sora, you okay? I'm so sorry, but you scared the everliving crap out of me!"

"No, no, it's fine," he wheezed out a chuckle, doubling over and clutching at his gut while Kairi shot him a sympathetic pout as she rubbed his shoulder. "You're bringing a new little life into the world, so you get a free pass!"

Smothering his snickers behind a hand, Riku shook his head at him, "Where did those ridiculous things even come from?"

"These?" Sora held up the gaudy spectacles. "Saw 'em in the hospital gift shop and thought everyone might get a kick outta them."

"Or at least a _punch_ ," Kairi teased, sticking her tongue out.

Kristoff and I hadn't been spotted yet. Sensing an opening as the rest of them devolved into light laughter, I was just about to insert myself into the conversation when-

"Beep beep, coming through! Move it or lose it!"

Jolting, I just barely jumped out of the way in time to narrowly avoid getting steamrolled by Anna as she suddenly came charging into the room. Her arms were stacked so high with hospital pillows that she couldn't really see past them, so I suspected she had no clue that she'd just beeped-beeped her own sister.

Yesterday when we'd been racing our way back to Twilight Town, I'd called Anna to make sure she'd heard the news that Rayne had gone into labor. Since we still had had several hours left on the road to go yet before we'd be back and I'd been worried about missing the birth, I'd wanted to make sure that Anna could at least be there in my stead. However I discovered I needn't have even asked, for my sister had already been burning rubber out of Arendelle to get to Twilight Town herself even before I'd called. Thankfully we'd arrived with time to spare - _plenty_ of it, as it was turning out. And bonus, I'd been getting to personally witness Anna's own unique brand of pitching in... that is, by doing anything and everything in her power to make sure Rayne was as comfortable as humanly possible.

Which to Anna apparently meant stealing every last pillow in this medical institution to offer up as tribute to Rayne.

"Ta-da!" she chirped as she dumped the tiny mountain of cushions onto Rayne's bed with a big, delighted grin. "I'm back with a whole friggin' variety this time, so pick your poison! I got soft ones, firm ones, big ones, small ones, some as big as your- you know what? Do you wanna go with _all_ of them? Let's go with all of them! Sound good? Good!" With that, she began gently but eagerly stuffing them one by one behind Rayne's head.

"Anna, sweetie… do you think we're maybe approaching the point of _too_ many pillows here?" Rayne delicately asked, shifting her back slightly against the already substantial collection behind her that Anna had managed to amass in the past several hours.

She wrinkled her nose with a snerk, "What? Nonsense, there's _no_ such thing as too many pillows! And I think you'll be singing a different tune once you get a load of this puppy here," she proudly held up and fluffed a particularly plush looking pillow. "This right here is the Holy Grail of hospital pillows! I _earned_ this bad boy too! Had to throw down with some greedy, wrinkly old fart who was trying to horde all the good bedding for himself!"

"Let me get this straight… you beat up an elderly old man and stole his pillow?" Riku gave her a dull look.

"I didn't _beat_ him up! Just… got in a bit of a tussle, that's all," she brushed off with a tiny shrug. At all the blank stares she received, she huffed, "What, he was crotchety and mean and fought dirty, kept whacking me with his cane! The old coot friggin' deserved it!" She turned her head away with a razz of her tongue before her face lit up once more. "Besides, nothing but the best for the soon-to-be mommy, isn't that right, Ray-Ray?" she cooed as she fondly tucked "the Holy Grail" of hospital pillows (which was the last of her latest haul from all her ransacking and pillaging) behind Rayne. Then she clapped her hands together, "Now! Be right back with more in a jiff!"

Before Anna could dash off again however, Rayne snagged her wrist with a hasty, "No!" As my sister glanced back at her, Rayne winced and lowly hissed her way through what looked to be another contraction before blowing out a relieved puff and exhaustedly chuckling, "The thought's appreciated, sweetpea, really, but try as you might, I just don't think we can quite cram the hospital's entire supply of pillows in this one teeny room."

"But-"

"Ah-ah!" she interrupted her protest, holding up a finger. "Trust me, I'm good. 'Sides, if you keep going at this rate, soon there'll be no room left on the bed for _me_."

The corners of Anna's lips turned down in a tiny sulk. "I suppose you're right," she hung her head as her hands smoothed over Rayne's bedsheets, flattening any wrinkles. Then she froze mid-gesture, face brightening once again as she looked up with a delighted little intake of breath. "I can get you more _blankets!_ So many blankets! _All_ the blankets!"

"What?! Anna, no, I'm not even-"

But my sister had already blurred out of the room with nothing more than a quick, "Hi, Sis! Bye, Sis!" to me. She didn't even acknowledge Kristoff. Don't think she saw him behind the caribou.

"...cold," Rayne finished with a defeated sigh. Then she seemed to notice me for the first time. More specifically, what I was holding. She immediately perked up, "Ah, there she is! C'mere, oh Great Bringer of Ice! My Ice Babe, my Ice Queen, my Ice Goddess!" She stretched out her arms towards me, making grabby hands. "Gimme!"

Ah, my role in keeping Rayne happy.

Which if it hadn't been obvious already, _that_ greeting should have just made it _abundantly_ clear.

This was actually my first time being present for the birth of somebody's child. And if I was being totally honest here, I had to admit that the experience did make me a bit awkward and anxious. Gussy it up however you like, but the "miracle of childbirth" was some animal kingdom nonsense that I'd normally rather take no part in. It was all just so... er… _messy_. But this was an important day for Rayne and I wanted to be there for her. Which meant I just had to do what I did for all important things that made me awkward and anxious.

I let it go and did them anyway.

Taking in a breath to quell my jittery nerves, I braved a smile as I approached her bedside and held out the cup which she greedily snatched up. "Got it back here as quick as I could, hopefully it didn't have a chance to melt too much."

Popping a few frozen chips into her mouth, she closed her eyes with a contented hum. "Ahhhh, that's the stuff! You always treat me right, boo! Keep the good shit coming."

"D'aw," I grinned softly, reaching out to lightly pat her cheek, "you make me feel like I'm your drug dealer."

"Don't act like you don't like it," she crunched down on the ice with a cheeky little wink before digging a few more out of the cup to slip between her lips. Then she looked past me and went stock still. She blinked once. Then twice. Then, "...um?"

I glanced back to realize she just now seemed to be noticing the comically large, dopey reindeer in the room. How she hadn't spotted it sooner was beyond me. In any case, I cleared my throat and stage whispered, "Pssst… Kristoff!"

"Right." Taking that as his cue, he started jauntily bouncing forward with the thing, making it do a floppy little jig in the process. Remaining hidden behind the colossal doll the whole time, he adopted a deep, goofy voice to speak for the plushie, "Hello, my name is Sven and I'm gonna be your new lil gal's bestest friend! I'll make sure to give her all the snuggles and huggles and wub she'll ever need!"

For a second, Rayne's expression was unreadable as she just continued to stare at the thing's big, silly face. Then she burst into tears.

Fudge, was this a good crying or a bad crying?

With all the drastic mood swings she'd been experiencing since labor started, it could really go either way at this point.

Everyone began to scramble. Riku was murmuring softly to her as he caressed her cheek, Kairi was frantically trying to pull up what she was claiming to be an absolutely _adorable_ picture of a dog and duck that were besties, and Sora was desperately shooting off lame, punny jokes so fast now that the punchlines were getting all jumbled and mashed together into pure gibberish. However it all turned out to be unnecessary as Rayne suddenly wailed, "Oh my _god_ , I _love_ him!"

Whew, okay, this was a _good_ crying.

False alarm, people, stand down.

"Really?" Kristoff stuck his head up from behind the deer, flashing a lopsided smile.

She nodded her head vigorously, sniffling. "He's perfect for our baby girl! And good news! You've officially just been hired as our full-time nanny!"

He gave a bashful chuckle as he found a corner to deposit Sven in, "Shucks, you don't hafta-" But then he stiffened as her words really sunk in. "Wait, what?"

"Yup! Don't worry, I'll talk to the Ice Palace for you so they'll work your shifts around it. Ah, we're gonna have the happiest kid in the whole wide universe now that she's going to have her own talking, dancing, prancing reindeer to play with every day!" she clapped in glee.

"Every-" Kristoff spluttered and paled. "Now hang on, I never agreed to any of-"

"Da-dun da-dun! Candygram!" a new voice loudly sang out. We all turned to discover Lea now standing in the doorway, grinning like a madman with his arms loaded down with junk food. Way, _way_ too much junk food.

"Good lord, where on earth did all _that_ come from?" was the only greeting he got from me as both eyebrows shot up my forehead.

He shrugged, grin somehow defying all odds to stretch even wider. "Raided the nearest couple o' vending machines and picked the things clean. Hope all you boys and gals are famished cuz tonight we feast like Candyland kings! And you get a chocolate bar!" he tossed one to me, which I fumbled to catch before sensing Rayne's gaze narrowing on me and I hastily hid it behind my back. "And you get a chocolate bar!" This one went to Kristoff. "And you and you and you!" Sora, Kairi, Riku. "Annnnnd…" Lea stopped mid-throw to Rayne, smirking as he retracted his hand. "... _not_ you cuz the Doc said that was a big fat no-no for you, Missy! Guess that just means more for me," he smugly singsonged as he made his way further into the room now.

Nostrils flaring, Rayne growled, "You are _such_ an _asshole_ , Red."

"One," he struck up a finger as he unceremoniously plopped down into a chair against the wall opposite of her, letting all the sweets pile up in his lap, "that's just part o' my roguish charm and you know it. Two, you said a naughty word." He tsked with a shake of his head as he began to peel the wrapper off a Snickers. "Now is that any way for a young lady who any second now is gonna be responsible for molding a young, impressionable mind of our future generation should be talking?"

"Fuck off," she spat out.

"That's more like it!" he laughed, toasting her with the candy bar before heartily taking a bite.

And _this_ , my friends, is how Lea was doing his part to help distract her from the pain.

By being a royal pain in the butt himself.

Fighting fire with fire, as it were.

"Mm-mm-mm!" Lea hummed, putting on a show of enjoying his snack a little too much. "The way that chocolate just melts in your mouth and mingles with all that sweet caramel and peanuty goodness… golly, would I _hate_ to be anyone who's not allowed to eat right now," he slyly broke off another piece between his teeth as he eyed Rayne.

She mutedly worked her jaw for a moment. Then in a dangerously low voice, she said, "Sorry, Elsa, but I'm sending your boyfriend to an early grave."

"Please don't. I'm actually rather fond of the little troublemaker," I snorted as I made my way over to him, quick to smother his mouth with my hand even as he opened it to spout off something else that would surely only tighten the proverbial noose even further around his neck.

I anticipated the little kiss he pressed to the inside of his palm. What I _didn't_ anticipate, however, was him simply taking hold of my wrist and yanking my down into his lap (a rather awkward seat, mind you, considering I was sharing the space with all that candy) where he hugged me tightly, pinning my arms to my sides in the process so I could no longer silence him. Nuzzling his nose to my cheek, he then turned his head to regard Rayne once more as he chirped, "Just consider it incentive! Think about it: the sooner ya squeeze that kiddo out, the sooner ya get to throttle me! Now lessee here, where was I…"

Releasing his hold on me, he retrieved another bar from the heap, tore it open and chomped down. "Mmm… Almond Joy? More like Almond _Nirvana!_ Seriously, this is _too_ good. Raindrop, wanna bite?" he held it out towards her, giving it a little wiggle with an impish gleam to his eyes.

Pretty sure I could see a vein bulging on her forehead for a split second. Then she tried to lunge straight for him and it was only thanks to the combined efforts of Riku, Kairi, _and_ Sora holding her back that she stayed put in her bed.

It seemed Lea was playing his part a little too well.

"Lemme at him, I'm going to _murder_ him!" she snarled as she fought against all the hands restraining her.

"Ah-ah," Lea waggled a finger at her - a finger I hastily grabbed and forced him to lower in a futile attempt to keep him from antagonizing her further. "What did I _just_ tell ya? Baby first, _then_ murder."

Rayne's lips parted, a particularly nasty retort surely on the tip of her tongue, but then she sucked in a sharp breath through her teeth as it appeared another contraction wracked her body and she bellowed out wordlessly instead.

As if her howl was a summons, a new person suddenly came bustling into the room with a chipper yet soothing, "Hello, I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion."

Mind you, I was using the term "person" in the loosest sense of the word. Baymax here was actually a robot of some kind, though a rather odd one at that - I usually didn't picture robots as big, round, soft and inflatable. Then again, this was the first robot I'd ever met, so what did I know? It seemed it (he?) was some sort of prototype on loan to the hospital, making rounds in the role of a nurse as a sort of a test run to see how viable mass producing more like it (him?) might be.

The future is now, apparently.

"Yes, yes, so you keep saying every. Damn. _Time_ that you come in here," Rayne panted out in reply to the bot, her grip firmly squeezing Riku's hand once more.

"On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?" Baymax asked amiably as he began to lift her blankets to check how far along she was while the rest of us discreetly averted our eyes.

She huffed out a bitter noise that may have been some crude approximation of a laugh. "Trust me, we left ten in the dust _hours_ ago."

"Good news" Baymax announced, still in that mellow yet upbeat tone he seemed to be programmed to never deviate from as he settled her bedsheets back into place. "You are dilated enough now to begin the birthing process. I'll page Dr Finkelstein so we can get started right away."

"Oh thank fucking god!" Rayne cried out.

Baymax turned to address the rest of us, "If everyone besides the father-to-be could please vacate the room and give us privacy, it would be most appreciated. Thank you and have a nice day."

As the rest of us quickly filed out of the room into the hall, I could spot Anna turning a corner down the way, her arms bursting with blankets now as she sprinted at full speed. Her gaze widened slightly when it landed on us and as she skidded to a halt, she asked, "What's going on? What happened?"

"I did it!" Lea chuckled triumphantly as he handed her a Butterfingers, which she bemusedly accepted. "I shit you not, I actually did it! I managed to _annoy_ that baby outta her!"

* * *

"Huh. We really would make a cute lil anklebiter, wouldn't we?"

I blinked, taking my eyes off my phone screen to glance down at Lea instead. "...pardon?"

The two of us had laid claim to a row of chairs in the waiting room that were sans armrests and pushed together to form a makeshift bench of sorts. I was currently seated in one on the end with Lea sprawled out across the rest of them, using my lap to pillow his head. Looking up from his own phone, he showed me his screen. "Got curious and put our photos in one o' those 'what'll our baby look like' websites. Just lookit this adorable lil fucker."

I was greeted with the sight of a computer-generated yet still rather life-like picture of a little boy. He had short hair that was platinum blonde like mine, as well as my blue eyes, but favored Lea's more sharp angular facial features, especially in the nose. "He is rather cute," I grinned, one hand pocketing my mobile while the other gently stroked his wild hair. Nibbling on my bottom lip, I hesitated for a heartbeat. Then, "...what brought this up?"

Retracting his arm and turning his phone back towards himself so he could stare at the picture once more, he shrugged. "I dunno… Raindrop and Riku's lil squirt's gonna be here any minute… Mom made that comment 'bout the two of us making a kid…" He paused and shrugged again. "Hard not to get curious what with all that baby fever going round right now, I s'pose."

"You think about that kind of stuff?" I tipped my head to one side, my finger idly singling out one of his crimson spikes to fiddle with in particular. "You want children?"

"Well yeah," he laughed, tucking his phone away as he sat up, now only occupying the seat beside me. Grinning sheepishly as he rubbed at the nape of his neck, he added, "Not anytime _soon_ , of course. But one day somewhere down the road with the right person? Definitely."

The corners of my eyes crinkled. There was absolutely zero doubt in my mind that Lea would make an amazing father some day. His words did sort of beg a certain kind of question however. One that I wasn't really sure I was ready to hear the answer to one way or another. Still, as I lowered my gaze to where my hands were fidgeting together in my lap, my face warmed as I couldn't seem to help but ask, "And do you… see _me_ as the right person?"

Lea reached over, engulfing one of my hands in his and weaving our fingers together, rubbing his thumb over my knuckles. I lifted my gaze to meet his and he smiled softly, "Maybe… yeah, I'd really… _really_ like to think you could be." He used his free hand to tentatively sweep some of my bangs behind my ear, his palm lingering against my cheek. "...is that okay, El?" he murmured.

He was worried his answer might freak me out, make me feel pressured. And to be fair, it _was_ the type of thing that probably normally would have. However, it wasn't a cold panic I felt seeping into my chest now, but rather a pleasant tingle, tiny but warm. I leaned into his hand, covering his fingers with my own as one corner of my lips turned up and I gave a small nod, maybe surprising us both a little bit as I whispered back, "Yeah, that's okay."

His grin stretched to the point of threatening to split his face in two. Then he leaned down to kiss me soundly, resting his forehead against mine after he drew back.

Personally, I'd never before really pictured children in my future. Not that I had seen myself _not_ having any, but I hadn't particularly seen myself having them either. It just hadn't really been something I'd thought much about, to be honest. And it didn't help that like I said, the whole process of childbirth made me a bit squeamish. But now… thinking about the prospect of maybe one day having them with Lea…

...sounded like it might be nice.

But that was still years and years and _years_ away, trust me.

Still… it was a pleasant possible future to think about.

A deep yawn suddenly overtook Lea and he gave a massive stretch before slouching further down into his seat, slinging an arm around my shoulders and tugging me into his side. "Yeesh, it's been almost two hours now, what is taking that kid so damn long? I've heard of showing up fashionably late, but baby girl is really pushing it."

His yawn was contagious for I found myself doing the same as I reached for his hand. Absently toying with his fingers, I hummed a tiny laugh, "Maybe she stopped to pick up a latte on her way here."

"Well then, that kiddo better come outta Raindrop with a cardboard to-go tray bearing enough coffee for everyone."

I smiled drowsily, but made no response. Seated across from us, I could see my sister cozied up with Kristoff in another pair of seats, quietly chatting and giggling. As for Sora and Kairi, they were off grabbing a bite in the cafeteria. We'd decided to go in shifts so that there would always be someone in the waiting room in case news came at long last. Lea and I had been the first pair to go, with Kairi and Sora being the last.

As the hospital speakers paged a Dr Sweet to report to surgery, Lea piped up again, "Ya know, a lil caffeine infusion might not be a bad idea. The hospital coffee here is shit, may as well be piss for all the good it does. Once the kid's made her grand debut at long last and we can finally split, I was originally thinking we'd head back to my place to catch some Z's. But how 'bout instead we swing by Lucky Cat for some quality bean juice so we can get a jumpstart on moving your stuff over?"

"Move my stuff?" My brow furrowed and I turned my head to look up at him. "...where's it going?"

Lea blinked owlishly at me. I blinked owlishly right back. "Didn't we…?" he began slowly, then groaned, rubbing his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. "Shit, I haven't actually brought that up to you yet, have I? Maybe I really _do_ need that nap." His hand shifted down to scratch at his cheek now, "But c'mon now, El, think… the kid's almost here."

"Uh-huh," I nodded.

"And she's gonna need a place to sleep," he went on.

"Of course." _Obviously_. I wasn't exactly sure where he was going with this.

He looked at me pointedly. "...in a nursery."

I quirked an eyebrow. "Right." Still lost here.

His eyelids drooped. "Babe... _your_ room's the nursery."

I just stared back at him blankly, not saying anything at first as my brain took a minute to churn over his words.

A rather _long_ minute.

Give me a break, I'd been awake for close to thirty-four hours straight now.

But finally it clicked.

I gasped, "I need to move out!"

" _There_ it is," he snorted, his hand rubbing my back.

"Crud, in all this flurry of baby chaos, that part _completely_ slipped my mind." I was on my feet in an instant, hands wringing my braid as I began pacing back and forth. "Fudge, I'm entirely unprepared for this! What am I going to do? Where am I going to go?" I stopped momentarily, looking at Lea. He opened his mouth to respond, but I was already furiously pacing once more, muttering, "Well, not _entirely_ unprepared. I of course knew this was coming, already had some of my things packed, been on the hunt for a new apartment, I have, I _really_ have! You _know_ I have!" Again I paused. Again his lips parted. Again, I resumed my patrolling without giving him a chance to speak, "But there's nothing lined up yet! Gah, the baby wasn't supposed to be due for _weeks_ , I was supposed to have more _time!_ But now there is no more time and… and…" I came to a halt once again, face hardening and shoulders squaring as I tapped the side of my fist into my palm with a firm nod. "Time to revisit the whole living in a box idea!"

Did I mention the whole thirty-four hours without sleep thing?

"Woah now, hang on! No one's gonna be living in a box," Lea hopped up with a chuckle, hands going to my shoulders and giving them a squeeze. "Doubt the new happy family would kick ya out just like that and make you homeless, they'd work something out for ya while you looked for a new home." Now his eyes darted to the left as he softly cleared his throat, "There's... another option though that, ya know... I'd _like_ to think is slightly more appealing to all parties involved…"

I cocked my head. "There is?"

"Yeah." He took both my hands in his, holding them to his chest as he beamed, "Move in with me!"

"Move in with…" I echoed slowly, trailing off as I stared up at him.

Processing… processing…

I gasped again, "Oh no! _No_ , we shouldn't- That's isn't- I couldn't _possibly_ do that!"

"Aw, why not?" he pouted.

"Moving in together is a big step, Lea! A huge decision! One we _definitely_ shouldn't be making spur of the moment like this, not to mention when we're both delirious from lack of sleep! There's so much to consider, so much to think about!"

He used the hold he still had on my hands to pull me to him and wrap my arms around his waist, freeing up his own arms to hug me instead. "What's there to think about? You're already practically living with me anyhow, you stay over almost every night as it is. I'd love to have you there, Bruni _and_ Marshmallow would love to have you there… it's three against one, El, you're outvoted."

I drooped my eyelids up at him. "The dog and salamander don't get votes."

"You'll hafta take that up with them once you're all moved in and settled," he pressed a quick peck to my forehead before flashing a cheeky grin. My expression remained unamused and he snerked, "C'mon, is it really such a big deal? We were _just_ talking 'bout having kids. Compared to that, the idea of shacking up together seems like small potatoes!"

"Yes, _theoretical_ kids in a _theoretical_ future. Me moving in with you is very real and very right _now_. We haven't even been dating for five months yet, that's _way_ too soon to be living together."

Lea shrugged, "And you were with your ex for five _years_ before almost tying the knot with him and we all know how that ended. Who's to say what's too soon and what isn't? All we can do is what feels right, and _this_ feels right… doesn't it?"

...it actually kind of did.

Damn him, it did.

It didn't help that those beautiful green puppy eyes of his were murder on my resolve.

But my stubbornness flared and I hastily looked away. I wasn't ready to relent just yet and I weakly scrambled to maintain my defense, "But… it's just too _soon_ , Lea. It hasn't even been a year yet, we haven't even… celebrated all the big holidays yet!"

Even as I blurted it out, it sounded lame even to me.

But it was the best I could come up with, dammit!

His eyebrows reached for his hairline and he fought a tiny smile. "...so just to be clear here, it's important to you that we observe all the major holidays in a calendar year together before making any further life-changing decisions."

I hitched my chin with a lofty little sniff. "Yes. Yes it is."

This was the hill was I choosing to die on, apparently.

"Duly noted," he glanced towards the ceiling with a tiny shake of his head before settling his gaze on me once more, eyes crinkling. "Fine, let's not call it moving in together then, call it… a temporary solution."

"...temporary?" I turned my head slightly, giving him some dubious side-eye.

"Mm-hm! Face it, babydoll, even though we both know Raindrop and Riku will be more than happy to accommodate ya, it's still gonna be a tight squeeze with all four of you in that tiny ass apartment while you're searching for a place. Wouldn't it just be more convenient for everyone if _temporarily_ ," he reiterated for emphasis, "you stayed with me instead just until you've found your new home? You know there's more than enough space for you and your things at my digs."

I tucked in my bottom lip. Maybe it was the sleep deprivation talking, but darn it, he actually seemed to be making a lot of sense. Still, I hesitated. "...I don't know what to say."

His eyes lit up. Great. Now the big dork knew he was winning. Hugging me more tightly to him, he grinned, "That's simple: say yes."

I squinted up to him, pursing my lips to the left. Then to the right. Then, just as I was slowly opening my mouth to speak-

-a throat suddenly cleared nearby.

Like, _really_ nearby.

Both Lea and I tensed before turning our heads to discover none other than Saïx standing not two inches away from us looking quite perturbed.

To be fair, Saïx _usually_ looked perturbed. It just seemed to be his face's default setting. But this was more perturbed than usual.

Lea quirked an eyebrow at him, but grinned, "Hey, big guy! Ya mind? Kinda in the middle of something here."

"And I do so hate to interrupt, truly," he said flatly, his cold unblinking gaze locked on his brother, "but I fear we have a rather pressing matter to discuss that cannot wait."

His eyebrows knit together. "...which would be?"

Saïx's hard stare was unyielding. "Do you think there is quite possibly something you may have forgot back at our mother's house?"

Cocking his head, Lea seemed even more genuinely confused now. Clearly racking his brain for a couple seconds, he then shrugged with a small shake of his head, "Like what?"

" _ME_ , you _DOLT!_ " Saïx snarled, slugging Lea in the shoulder hard enough to force a pained grunt out of him.

I inhaled sharply through my nose, eyes widening.

There was no way we'd actually-

We couldn't have honestly-

We didn't-

...did we _really?_

I thought back to yesterday, though it was a struggle to remember a clear picture through the fog of grogginess. Had Saïx been in the car with us on the trip back? Had he not? Try as I might, I just simply could _not_ remember one way or another. But I suppose it could be (and in fact _was_ ) completely possible, especially considering Lea had had Saïx's car keys and I had had his code to start the engine.

In our state of panic and rush to get out of there, had we really just totally spaced on the fact that we didn't have him with us?

"Oh gosh, Saïx, I'm so sorry we left you behind!" I bemoaned in horror.

Lea laughed, "Relax, El, don'tcha know that with me as your boyfriend, that makes everything my fault? You're off the hook, I'm the only one he's mad at."

"He's right, I don't blame you at all." Although Saïx was talking to me, his irked gaze never left Lea. " _You're_ not the one who forgot your own _brother_."

No, I just simply forgot a whole _person_. For a whole _car ride_. In _his own_ _friggin'_ car.

Elsa, Queen of Memory Lapse.

"Bah, I didn't forget ya, I just… thought you were in the backseat the entire time being _really_ quiet!"

_That_ earned Lea another punch to the arm.

Giving an annoyed huff as he rubbed his knuckles, Saïx asked with a bit less bite to his tone now, "I presume since I find you all still here at the hospital, the child has yet to be born?" At our silent nods, he moved to the nearest set of empty chairs and sat down with a soft huff, crossing his arms.

Huh. Guess he was going to join us for sharing Rayne's and Riku's joy in this blessed event.

I gingerly took a seat next to him, Lea plopping down in the chair on my other side. As his arm wrapped around my shoulders, he piped up with a huge smile, "Got some good news that I think'll clear up that black rain cloud hanging over your head there, Mr Grumps McSourpuss: El's moving in with us!"

My back stiffened and I whipped my head around to narrow my eyes up at him, "I haven't said yes yet."

Saïx was eyeing me oddly from the corner of his peripheral. "...you mean you weren't already living with us?"

"There ya have it! Saïx's official stamp of approval! Now ya _gotta_ say yes," Lea beamed, smoothing his hand up and down my arm.

My eyelids drooped. "...one, in what universe was that even _remotely_ a stamp of approval? And two, no, I don't 'gotta' do anything, least of all say yes."

"But you will," he winked at me, pressing a kiss to my cheek. Then he was looking past me towards Saïx once more, a thoughtful frown twisting his lips. "Hey… since we jacked your wheels, how'd you even get back here?"

Saïx fixed him with a dull stare. Then he shifted his crossed arms more tightly against his chest, closed his eyes and hitched his chin. "...wouldn't you like to know."

Lea snerked. "I would in fact, thus why I asked."

"What's that inanely childish saying you do so love to spout of? ...that's for me to know and you to find out?"

"C'mon, man," he groaned out. "This is gonna bug the crap outta me now until ya tell me."

One corner of his lips cruelly curled up. "I know."

Apparently, Saïx was swift to enact his vengeance when the need arose.

A tiny scowl emerged on my boyfriend's face, but before he could shoot off whatever acerbic retort he undoubtedly already had locked and loaded, I stopped him with a touch to his arm as I said, "Lea." He glanced down at me and I nodded towards the far corner of the waiting room. "Look."

He followed my gaze to a familiar woman with silver hair pulled back into a ponytail made of several tiny braids and the same green eyes as Lea. Aranea apparently was not aware that we had just noticed her, for she was too busy inspecting the selection available over at the hospital's coffee station with her nose wrinkled.

"Ah," Lea breathed, gracing his brother with a mildly sour look. " _That's_ how ya got back. Ya bummed a ride outta our old lady."

Saïx said nothing, just continued to stare stoically straight ahead.

Blowing out a breath that made his lips flap, Lea turned his eyes towards his mother once more. A heartbeat of hesitation. Then making a sound that was half growl, half sigh, Lea muttered. "Be right back. Ma and I have some unfinished business." I smiled softly as he planted a smooch to my temple and I gave his hand a quick squeeze before releasing it as he stood up.

I watched Aranea perk up as she spotted Lea approaching. They exchanged a few words that I was too far away to hear, her grinning the whole time, him ruffling his fingers through his hair as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Then it seemed they decided to find somewhere else to have their talk for they then walked out of the waiting room.

Off to a good start at least, it seemed. Letting go a tiny exhale of relief, I glanced over at the chairs across from us once more to where Anna sat as I considered possibly shifting over to a seat near her. But seeing as she was currently otherwise, er… _occupied_ with, hrm… inspecting Kristoff's tonsils with her tongue, I decided against it.

Ugh, gross, I did _not_ need to see that.

Instead, I turned my attention to Saïx. My lips parted and I took in a breath to say something, but then I hesitated and clamped my mouth shut, staring down at where I was fiddling with my fingers in my lap. Then I cleared my throat, looked over at him once more and tried again, "Would it... _really_ be okay with you if… if I decided to move in?"

His eyes flicked over to me briefly without turning his head. Then releasing a nearly inaudible sigh through his nose, he stared straight forward once again. "I consider you among a small, select handful of people I can tolerate and would even go so far as to say enjoy the company of. If my asinine fool of a brother has against all odds actually managed to persuade you somehow into agreeing to move in with him, then by all means, your presence on a more permanent basis could only be a considerable improvement on our day-to-day lives around the apartment." He paused and for a second it seemed that was all he had to say on the subject. Then then added a bit more quietly, "Besides, you make my brother happy. Far be it from me to stand in the way of that, even if I wanted to."

A small smile tugged at my lips. "...he makes me happy too."

Saïx gave a low _hmph_ at that, closing his eyes. "I would hope so. Otherwise, what would be the point?"

On that note, the conversation ended. As he seemed more than content to remain in a companionable silence, I reached over the seat Lea had vacated and towards the little table on the other side, plucking up one of the outdated magazines provided by the hospital from it and slowly began flipping through its pages.

A short while later, I heard a door opening and I glanced up to see that Lea and Aranea were walking back into the waiting room. Neither one looked like they wanted to murder each other, so I took that as a good sign. In fact, they almost, _almost_ seemed somewhat chummy.

I set the periodical aside and both Saïx and I rose as they approached, which prompted a chuckle from Aranea, "No need to get up, I'm not staying. Just wanted to give my other knucklehead kid one last hug before hitting the road," she embraced Saïx, which he accepted as stony-faced as ever. Then she turned to me with a sly little smirk, "Plus I hear congrats are in order."

My eyes blinked. "...they are?"

"Course! You two lil lovebirds are gonna be living together soon, after all!"

I twitched, then shot Lea a flat look. "I haven't said yes yet."

He grinned, stepping closer to take my hand and bring it up to his lips. "Key word there: _yet_."

Oh-ho, he thought he was being cute. Even as I opened my mouth to prove just how wrong he was however, Aranea suddenly snagged me into a bone-crushing bear hug as she chirped, "Take care, shortcake!" She gave me one final squeeze before releasing me to rest a hand on my shoulder, "And if either of my boys give you any trouble, you gimme a call, I'll be only too happy to knock some sense into 'em!"

Smiling, I nodded, "Thanks, I'll be sure to do that. Have a safe trip back."

Lea received a hug from her as well and though he returned it stiffly, it was remarkably warmer than the one they'd shared yesterday in the foyer of her home. With that, she made her way towards the exit, waving goodbye to us over her shoulder before disappearing through the door.

"I take it you two are getting along now," I said to Lea as I settled into my chair once again.

He took a seat too, stretching his arm out along the backrest behind my head. As his fingers began to idly toy with my braid, he pursed his lips to one side in thought. Then, "Ya know how you and your folks 'get along' now?" he brought up his other hand to form air quotes. At my nod, he said, "Well, it's kinda like that. We're… gonna work on it."

I reached for his hands, lacing our fingers together as I told him gently, "I'm glad you decided to give her a chance."

"I think I am too," he admitted, albeit somewhat begrudgingly.

Just then, the same door Aranea had left through opened once more, Sora and Kairi being the ones to step through this time, laughing over something they'd been talking about. It seemed their timing was impeccable, for that was also when the double doors on the other side of the room parted and in walked a very familiar white, inflatable robot. All of us immediately zeroed in on him and were on our feet in an flash as he greeted us with, "Hello, I am Baymax, your personal healthc-"

"Yeah, yeah, we know all that already, get to the good part, you giant balloon!" Anna hastily cut him off, rolling her eyes. "Do you actually have anything _new_ to tell us? How's Ray-Ray doing?"

"The delivery was a success," Baymax announced, managing to sound almost pleased somehow despite there being no actual change in the mechanical tone of his voice. "Everyone is happy and healthy. The new family is ready to accept visitors and have welcomed you all back to their room."

There was a mixture of whoops and relieved sighs all around before all of us, Saïx included, followed the robot as he led the way past those doors and towards the maternity ward. Not a minute later found us all crowding back into their hospital room. I spotted Riku first at his wife's bedside, facing her so his back was to us. As for Rayne, she looked absolutely exhausted and like she'd been to hell and back twice, but she positively radiated pure joy and love for the little bundle I could now see her holding in her arms. As she looked up at our entrance, she proudly beamed and said, "Everyone… I'd like you to meet Aria."

"...and Cayde," Riku added, smirking as he turned around to reveal he was cradling a _second_ baby.

" _TWO?!_ " Lea gaped, wide-eyed gaze darting back and forth between them while the rest of us were too stunned to even speak.

"That's right! Two!" Rayne chirped in delight.

Sora was the next one to find his voice, only to blurt out, "Twins?!"

"No, we liked the first one so much, we decided to randomly steal a second one from one of the other cribs when no one was looking," Riku deadpanned before snorting with a shake of his head. "Of course they're twins, doofus."

"But you never said anything about twins," Anna was already adopting a baby voice as she approached Riku, wasting no time making funny faces at Cayde.

Gently rocking little Aria as Rayne watched her fondly, she said, "We didn't know. No one did, not until Cayde shocked us all by showing up hot on the heels of his big sis. Guess the doctors missed him during all those check-ups and sonograms somehow."

"How do they miss a whole other _baby_ inside of you for _months?!_ " Kristoff shook his head in disbelief.

"Who knows, but it's not unheard of. We're not the first couple this has ever happened to." Glancing over to Cayde, Rayne grinned as she reached out a fingertip to tickle the underside of one of his tiny feet. "...he was a surprise, that's for sure, but a happy one."

"I'll say!" Kairi giggled, stepping forward to gently squish Aria's cheeks as she cooed, "This just gives Auntie Kairi and Unkie Sora twice the niblings to wub, doesn't it? Doesn't it? Yes it does!"

"Speaking of which… Kristoff." The man in question stood up straighter as Rayne suddenly locked eyes with him and told him in no uncertain terms, "We're gonna need a second reindeer."

He dragged a hand down the side of his face and sighed. "...I'll talk to Frozone."

Rayne crinkled her nose as she hummed a soft laugh, then her eyes landed on me as I approached her bedside. "Oh, Elsa, there was something I… _we_ ," she amended, exchanging a glance and a tiny nod with her husband, "wanted to talk to you about… we'd absolutely love it if you'd be the twins' godmother."

The finger I was waggling at Aria froze as my gaze widened and snapped up to meet hers. "Who, me? _Really?_ " By the look in both the new parents' eyes, they were serious. _Dead_ serious. "Oh! Why, uh… yes. Yes of course! I'd be very honored," I smiled.

"And Sora," Riku chimed in now, causing his cousin to pause mid-sticking his tongue out and crossing his eyes at Cayde. "We were hoping you'd be their godfather."

Sora blinded us all with his signature huge, thousand-watt grin. "Absolutely! I'm gonna make the best godfather ever, you'll see! I- wait…" His brow furrowed and he gasped, whipping his head around towards me now with a slight look of panic. "Does… does that make us... _god-married?_ "

"Yes. It does."

And who was it, one might wonder, to deliver that answer in full earnest and with a completely straight face?

Saïx.

That's right. _Saïx_.

Which is probably why Sora took him at his word and didn't even think to question it. Nostrils flaring and with a steely look of determination now, he informed Lea, "I promise to take good care of her."

Not missing a beat, Lea nodded firmly, "You better, lil man, otherwise I will _end_ you."

I elbowed my boyfriend in the gut, forcing a wheeze out of him. As everyone else sniggered around us, I sighed, "No, Sora, that doesn't make us god-married, it doesn't make us god- _anything_."

"Oh good! Whew!"

At that point, conversation for the most part subsided in favor of everyone trying to squeeze in to fawn over the new babies. After a minute of this, I decided to take the opportunity to snag Lea (dragging him away from playing with Aria's "widdle toesy-wosies" - his words, not mine) and pull him off to one side of the room away from the others. They hardly even noticed us stepping away, so enamored were they all with the little ones.

I faced him, holding both his hands in mine as I took in a deep breath and released it before uttering a single word. "Yes."

His face immediately lit up, but he quickly schooled his expression and cleared his throat, asking casually, "Yes? Yes what?"

Ugh, he knew very damn well what, he just wanted to hear me say it. Rolling my eyes but unable to fight a small grin, I said, "Yes, I'll move in with you. It just makes sense, after all, now that they have twins, there's even _less_ room for me in their apartment and-"

I didn't get to finish that sentence as he smiled fiercely and grabbed my face, planting a firm kiss to my lips before laughing as he hugged me, picked me up and spun me around.

" _Temporarily_ ," I insisted, arms instinctively latching around his neck to steady myself.

"Yeah, yeah, of course, _temporarily_ ," he agreed, putting me down while still grinning like an idiot.

I poked his chest a couple times, "I mean it. I'm going to keep looking for my own place and the _second_ I find something, I'm moving right back out."

"Whatever ya say, babydoll!"

Funny thing is though…

...I never _did_ end up actually moving out.

* * *

_**Author's Note:** _ _MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS!_ _Hope you all enjoyed the millions of teeny references I sprinkled in - my aesthetic, as I'm sure you're all aware at this point xP (My fave was something Lea said towards the very end, did you guys catch that it was a reference? I hope so :3)_ _Regarding Sora's lil stand-up comedy act, I unfortunately cannot take credit for any of his material - I just googled a bunch of Final Fantasy jokes xD I can't even take credit for the cactuar jokes for even tho I couldn't find any ACTUAL cactuar jokes out there on the internet, I just googled cactus jokes instead xD And yes, there are IN FACT cactus jokes out there, and a LOT of them lawl! And woo, Lea and his mom made up… sort of! xD Sorry that happened off screen, part of it was I thought it wasn't a conversation that Elsa would really be present for, part of it was I didn't want to take focus off the main points of this chapter, and part of it was I was just too lazy to write it at this time xD Maybe I'll go back at a later date and write a Lea POV chapter for this lil chat with his mum, we'll see! But for now, at least we got a lil closure on that front! And aaaaahhhhh, our ice and fire bbies are taking a big step and moving in together, yaaaaaay! :3 I knew that was definitely a relationship milestone I wanted to cover in one of these bonus chapters and this just seemed like a fun way to bring it about xD_

_The next one-shot is set during Christmas time! Which I know, lil late, should have posted it today xD But I'd kinda locked myself into the baby chapter with the way the last chapter ended and the babies are born in September, so couldn't combine them into one chapter xD So consider next week's update just a bit of a belated Christmas present!_ _And I'll say this about the next bonus chapter: It's gonna be pure crack xD Trust me, there will be no substance whatsoever, it's just mindless silliness and slightly scandalous and mildly salacious (but still 100% family friendly… ish... haha!). Basically, if PG horny hijinx doesn't interest you, you might wanna skip the next chapter xD You've been warned!_

_Thank you so much for reading, especially to those of you who have left a kudos and shared with me your thoughts and feelings on this story so far! Remember, feedback is not only welcome, but highly encouraged and super appreciated!_


	37. Chapter 37

**_Author's Note:_ ** _Hi there! I rarely put my lil messages at the start of chapters, but I think you all deserve a little pre-warning for this installment. It is very loooooooooooooooooong and it is, hrm… VERY PG-13 xD Now, me being the very easily flustered writer that I am, I can tell you right now that no OVERLY graphic sexy things happen and there is a fade to black at the end, so it is all still fairly tame. But still, this is definitely not a chapter for the wee kiddies and there is a lotta sexy innuendo and lotta talk of sexy, ahem… ITEMS. Nothing of substance or even remotely important to plot happens this chapter, it's all mostly just horny Christmas shenanigans xD And again it's a monster of a chapter, so if that doesn't sound like something you'd be interested in, you might just want to skip this chapter. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!_

* * *

"Baby, all I want for Christmas is you."

Rayne stumbled a bit as she pushed the double stroller along, blowing out an amused little _pft_ through her teeth. "Please, _please_ tell me he did not _actually_ say that!"

I sighed, hanging my head as I kept stride next to her, "He did. When I asked him for gift ideas, those were his exact words."

Anna erupted into laughter beside me, gripping my arm for support. "Dear _lord_ , have I ever mentioned what a friggin' cliché, cheesy cornball your man is?"

"Not to mention no help at all," I grumbled, crossing my arms. "This is like Lea's birthday all over again. I mean, I know the stuff he likes, but honestly... what do you get for the man that buys everything and anything he wants for himself the second he sees it?"

"Don't worry, pumpkin," Rayne reached over to pat a comforting hand to my shoulder. "We wander around here long enough, something's sure to jump out at us eventually!"

"I hope so," I grimaced, not feeling so confident myself as we pressed onward through the crowded mall. I'd just gotten off my morning shift at the Ice Palace not too long ago and was still in my uniform minus the hat. It seemed I wasn't the only one who had to do some last minute holiday shopping, for that was the exact reason my sister and best friend had met up with me here as soon as I'd clocked out. With Christmas only a week away however, Dusk Town Center was understandably packed nearly to bursting. Merchandise was all but flying off the shelves in every store. Even if by some miracle I _did_ manage to find the perfect gift here today, with my luck it'd probably be completely out of stock and backordered for months.

Gah, I shouldn't have kept putting this off for so long! But I had been racking my brain for weeks now for what to get him and had come up with zilch. _Still_ had zilch. Ugh…

Last-minute-panicked-impulse-shopping don't fail me now!

Anna suddenly gasped and stopped walking. I took a few more steps before I slowed as well, glancing back at her with one eyebrow quirked. Her eyes weren't focused on me however as a slow grin spread across her face. "...what if we took Lea's words literally?"

Rayne and I exchanged a quick look. She shrugged, seemingly just as in the dark as I was. As mall traffic kept flowing unperturbed around us, my gaze settled on Anna once more and I snorted with a shake of my head, "What, you mean just put me under the tree gift-wrapped with a bow for Christmas morning?"

"Something like that, Sis," she giggled, suddenly latching on to my arm once more but now with a surprisingly strong grip.

Uh-oh… that impish gleam in her eye was making me nervous...

"Oh-ho, I see where she's going with this," Rayne sniggered before shifting the stroller over to be in front of me instead. "Here, take this." I blinked, my fingers automatically closing around the handlebar. Then she had seized hold of my other arm.

Oh gosh, her devilish little smirk was making me really, _really_ nervous…

The ladies nodded at each other in unison in some unspoken agreement then without warning took off sprinting. I gasped and tripped over my own two feet, but managed to stay up right as I was dragged along with them. The sea of people parted for the stroller bearing two laughing infants like they were a friggin' pair of tiny Moses and we had zero trouble getting through, making a beeline straight for-

My eyes widened, "Oh no."

"Oh yes!" Anna cackled, tightening her hold on my arm.

I futilely dug my heels in, trying to put on the brakes. "No, no, no!"

"Yes, yes, _yes!_ " Rayne answered in glee.

There was no use fighting it. This was happening. Like it or not, I had no choice but to charge headlong into a little shop known as…

...Esmeralda's Secrets.

I had just been forcibly manhandled into literal Underwear Hell. Everywhere as far as the eye could see, things were lacy… things were silky…

...things were _fluffy_.

Egads, the horror. The fluffy, fluffy, neon pink, leopard-printed utter horror.

I squeaked, squeezing my eyes closed and burying my face into my hands. I was almost surprised my palms didn't burn from how badly my cheeks were roasting.

I heard a chuckle from Rayne as I felt her trying to gently pry my fingers away from my eyes. "Don't play coy, sweetie, we're all grown-ups here! You act like you've never been in an adult happy fun-time store to buy some lingerie before!"

"Maybe because I haven't!" I dropped my hands to fix her with a hard stare. Instead, the recipient of my said stare turned out to be a mannequin in something skimpy, leathery and with far too many buckles. "Oh dear," I muttered, somehow managing to blush even harder as I looked away and held a hand up to block my line of sight to it.

"Really, Sis? You've _never_ been in one of these places? Not ever, not even once?" Anna snerked, shaking her head. The sheer disbelief coloring her voice led me to believe that she _had_ been in this type of store before. This was not a realization I was comfortable with. "But you're so…" she whistled, winking one eye shut as her hands traced an hour-glass figure in the air before me. "...and Lea's so…" now she trilled her tongue against the roof of her mouth, eyebrows bouncing as she mimed pouncing with curled, wriggling fingers. "...ya know what I mean?"

...was it sad that I did in fact know _exactly_ what she meant?

Scrunching my eyes shut as I pressed my fingers between my eyebrows, I puffed out a low sigh. Then, rather awkwardly (scratch that... very, _very_ awkwardly), I explained, "...while it's… true that we're quite, er… _active_ in that, hrm… _department_ … we, uh… r-rather, that is to say, lingerie is a particular… bedroom... _adventure_ we've yet to have as of, um… as of yet."

I couldn't believe this was actually a conversation I was having with my baby sister.

She brightened. "Well then thank your lucky stars cuz I've just handed you the perfect Christmas present on a silver platter! You're welcome!"

I tipped my head to one side with a dubious frown. "...really?" Plucking a hanger bearing an intricate, ruffled bra from a nearby rack, I wrinkled my nose at it before putting it back. "Doesn't seem like it'd be the most meaningful, heartfelt gift…"

"Please!" Rayne batted a hand through the air with a snort. "It's not like it's an anniversary or anything, it's _Christmas_ \- a consumer holiday glorified by the big corporations to weasel as much munny as they can outta us! Not every gift has to be thoughtful and profound, you're allowed to just have a lil fun with it sometimes!"

"Still… I don't know…" I said slowly as my gaze wandered against my will towards a nearby case filled with… ah, hm… shall we say, recreational items? I quickly averted my eyes.

"How 'bout we just peruse a bit, 'kay? No harm in that!" Rayne grinned as she steered the stroller further into the store.

"Yeah, Sis, just let us _peruse!_ " Anna beamed as she linked her arm in mine once more and tugged me into a stumbling walk.

I pressed my lips together into a thin line and said nothing as I let her guide me along. I mean, did I even have a choice? _Really?_ Maybe the sooner I stopped arguing, the sooner we could get this whole embarrassing ordeal over with and leave.

As I let my eyes idly drift from one frilly garment to the next, I did have to begrudgingly concede that Anna and Rayne might actually be onto something here with the lingerie idea. Don't get me wrong, Lea had never made me feel pressured to, er… "dress up" for the occasion or anything like that. It was never even really a conversation we'd ever had, so honestly it wasn't something I'd particularly given much thought to before this very moment. That said, I could hardly see him being exactly _opposed_ to the idea either. Far from it, in fact…

Thus why it might just make the perfect Christmas surprise.

Anna abruptly pulled us to an unexpected stop in front of another customer, drooping her eyelids at the individual as she informed him, "You know that'd be more of a Christmas gift for you than for her, right?"

The gentleman in question paled, choking back a startled, "Huh?" and looking rather guilty as he stood there with the sheer, sparkly spaghetti-strapped thong dangling from his fingers that'd he'd been mulling over.

Rayne stepped up beside us, parking her stroller with it aimed directly at the guy as she deadpanned, "For shame! My babies judge you!"

He blinked, glancing down at the infants. Cayde and Aria squealed and burbled back. Turning bright red and dropping the underwear, he made a hasty retreat out of the shop.

"Haha, yes! That was too fun, Ray-Ray!" Anna snickered, giving her a high five. As I pinched the bridge of my nose with a tiny shake of my head, Anna asked, "What?"

I grumbled, "Being in a lingerie store by myself would be mortifying enough, but it's just now dawning on me how utterly ridiculous it is that I'm in here with my _sister_ and a _mom_ who brought her _two babies_."

"Psh, they're fine with it," Rayne brushed off, redirecting her gaze to someone nearby who seemed to work here. "Excuse me, Miss, you're fine with my tots being here, right?"

The woman turned to face us with a warm smile. She had long, wavy raven hair, eyes as green and sparkly as emeralds, and the kind of figure that would probably be pictured in a dictionary next to the word "voluptuous." In short, _exactly_ the kind person any boss who ran a lingerie store would be positively thrilled to hire as an employee. She hummed a soft laugh as she waved a finger in greeting to the twins, "Of course! I actually have a kid of my own back home… Djali looks to be just about their age, maybe a few months older. Anyway, I completely understand and have no problem at all with you bringing them in here."

"Told ya," Rayne smugly razzed her tongue in victory at me.

And this prime example of maturity was a parent, folks.

Rolling my eyes but fighting a grin, I then glimpsed the worker's name tag and furrowed my brow. "Wait… _you're_ Esmeralda?" I blinked a couple times. "...that's not just a fancy name they put on the store sign?"

"Nope! I own and operate this lil business," the woman smiled proudly now.

"Well then, Esmeralda, I hafta ask…" one corner of Anna's lips turned up as she leaned to whisper conspiratorially, "What's your secret?"

A little snort escaped her nose before she gestured back towards the front of the store, "Not letting creeps like that get to me."

Looking out the shop windows back into the mall proper, we now all spotted a rather sinister-looking old man standing out there who seemed to be… protesting? He was holding up a sign aimed directly at this little boutique bearing in big, bold letters the words (and I kid you not): _SINNERS, REPENT_. Other mall shoppers were giving the man a wide berth as he just stood there a few feet away from the entrance into here, glaring. Gosh, how had we not seen him on our way in? Maybe he'd arrived after us.

"Ugh," Rayne scrunched up her nose in distaste at the sight of the man. "What's ol' Skeezy McSkeezerson's problem?"

"He's just some religious nutjob who thinks my little," up came her fingers to provide air quotes, " _den of iniquity_ here is ruining the wholesome, family friendliness of the mall. Ignore Frollo, he's harmless."

Anna raised an eyebrow, "You're chummy enough with that gnarly bag of bones to know his name?"

Chuckling, Esmeralda shrugged, "Kind of hard not to know it, what with him harassing me every morning when I come to open shop and every night when I lock up. Luckily, he's not brave enough to follow me inside, probably too afraid he'll fall victim all this sin and debauchery hanging on the racks. This place is my sanctuary," she glanced around with a contented sigh. Then she clapped her hands together once, flashing her best customer service smile now. "But that's enough talk about that! Is there anything I can help you lovely ladies out with today?"

"Perhaps you can assist my beautiful bestie here by helping her pick out some sexy underwear for her to show off to her man," Rayne beamed, slinging an arm around my shoulders. "You'll hafta forgive her, she's a tad clueless cuz she's a bit of a lingerie virgin."

"Hmmmmm," Esmeralda slowly circled me as she tapped a curled finger to chin. I felt a heat rising to my face once again under such scrutiny and I began fidgeting with my braid. "...yes, I can already picture a few of my items that could suit you perfectly. But first, tell me a little about your beau - do you think he could handle being subjected to some of our more…" she paused, a sly little gleam flitting across her eyes now as she smirked, "... _risqu_ _é_ outfits?"

Forget him, I don't think _I_ could handle being subjected to some of their more risqué outfits!

Before I could respond however, Anna chimed in with, "Oh don't worry, Lea can handle them! Trust me, he's as red blooded and virile as they come!"

"Anna!" I gasped, horrified as I strangled my braid harder.

She gave my shoulder a light, playful shove, "C'mon, Sis, you think I can't friggin' _hear_ you two going at it whenever I spend the night on your living room couch?"

I nearly tore my braid straight out of my scalp.

Face? What face? No, I no longer had one and in its place now was nothing but a raging inferno.

"I- He- We- Tha-" I spluttered and stammered, unable to complete a coherent thought, much less _sentence_.

"Aw, I think you broke her," Rayne cooed with a little giggle, patting me on the head.

Esmeralda had already set to work, drifting from one rack to the next, seemingly knowing exactly where to find each thing she was looking for as she quickly and efficiently riffled through the garments, plucking up hangers here and there to toss over her arm before moving to the next one. Before long, she'd returned to stand in front of me with an assortment of delicates neatly stacked in the crook of her elbow. "I've picked out a few options for you for starters, just let me know if you see any you'd like to try on." With that, she held up the first one.

...I did _not_ understand what I was even looking at here. Like, at all. Was she holding it upside down?

Though I made no comment, my expression must have told her everything. "Alright, not your cup of tea. Moving along," she smiled good-humoredly as she set that one aside and lifted up another one for me to look at.

Good lord, was that supposed to be lingerie or a net? The thing was more holes than fabric. Just how many limbs did they think I _had?_

Tucking that one away as well, she laughed, "Take it that one's a no too. Don't worry, I have a good feeling about this next one." She showed it to me and…

...actually? It wasn't _too_ distressing.

No, it was actually a rather classy and tasteful kind of sexy, with its silk and its hint of lace and its overbust corset in a deep, rich blue.

I hesitated with a thoughtful frown before reaching a hand out to gingerly take it from her. Cheeks still simmering away, I pursed my lips to one side as I considered it for a few seconds longer, then mumbled, "You said something about being able to try them on?"

Esmeralda smiled brightly. "Follow me, I'll take you to a fitting room."

As she started leading me towards the back, I was suddenly halted in my tracks when I heard, "Sis! Sis!" My eyebrows knit together as I turned my head towards Anna's voice. I spotted her over by one of the wall shelves, holding something up high over her head and waving it about with an almost manic glee as Rayne smothered snickers into her hand beside her. "You should get this for Lea too!"

It took me a second to realize what it was she had in her hand, but when I did, every last drop of blood in my body came hurtling up into my face.

" _No!_ " I shouted across the store. "No way! I am _not_ buying that!"

* * *

I bought it.

But only because Anna wouldn't stop pestering me about the stupid _thing_ until I did.

I hadn't been able to bring myself to gift-wrap it with the lingerie that I'd also ended up purchasing. Heck, I'd barely been able to bring myself to wrap the _lingerie_ itself, but what exactly else could I have done? Surprised him with it by just walking into the bedroom wearing it? Please, as if I could ever be so bold - I'd practically burst into flames from all the blushing I'd been doing just wrapping the dang thing. As for the other _thing_ , I'd just panicked and hid it away wedged between the bedframe and underside of our mattress for the time being until I could figure out something else to do with it.

Thankfully, I'd also managed to come up with a second gift to give Lea. In a sudden surge of inspiration out of the blue, I'd gotten the idea to get him a vintage movie reel projector. I could just picture him getting all excited about collecting all of his cheesy classics he loved so much in their original format so we could watch them "the way they were meant to be watched" or something like that. Finding one used online hadn't been all that difficult or expensive, not to mention thank goodness for overnight shipping! The device itself was big but not all that heavy, almost shockingly so - I'd easily been able to lug it around myself for getting it all wrapped and whatnot.

So there my two presents sat in the living room as Christmas Eve dawned, beneath a tiny yet festively decorated tree that we had to constantly keep Marshmallow from trying to eat. It was hard to blame the giant fuzzball though really - now almost fully grown, Marshmallow was bigger than the dinky little pine so was it any real wonder that he seemed to consider it his new favorite chew toy?

In any case, me getting Lea more than one gift seemed to have worked out for the best as it hadn't slipped my notice that he'd also gotten me a couple things that were currently nestled there at the base of that tree. Our small cluster of presents were really only there for the sake of appearances at the moment. We weren't going to be here on Christmas day itself. We were in fact just a few minutes away from hitting the road to spend the holidays in my family's sizable cabin tucked away up in the snowy mountains surrounding Arendelle. Luckily, the only actual relatives that would be there were Anna and Saïx, with the rest of the guest rooms being filled out by a handful of our friends we'd invited to join us for the holidays. In any case, all we had left to do before we departed was finish getting dressed, wrap up packing with a few last minute supplies, toss the presents into the car trunk, wrangle Marshmallow into the backseat and then we'd be off.

Thus my mild surprise when just as I'd finish rinsing my dish from breakfast, I felt Lea wrapping his arms around my waist to hug me from behind as he nuzzled my neck and whispered, "Hey, how 'bout we each open up one of our presents a day early? It'll be fun, whaddya say?"

I glanced over my shoulder at him and he flashed me a cheeky little grin. I blinked a couple times, then peeked over towards our teeny tree in the living room. More specifically, at the gifts beneath it. At one gift in particular.

You know… _that_ gift.

I hastily averted my gaze, feeling my cheeks warm.

Drat, had he noticed which one my eyes had zeroed in on?

Clearing my throat as I set the dish in the drying rack, I asked casually, "Do we really have the time? We're already running a bit behind, we should've been on the highway ten minutes ago."

"We're already late, what's a few extra measly minutes?"

I tried again, "But today? Right now? ...it's not even Christmas yet."

"Pfft, what, like the holiday police are gonna bust us for bending the rules a lil?" he chuckled low as he gave my ear a playful nip before pulling away, spinning me around to face him. "Misbehave, live a lil! Being bad never felt so good! 'Sides, I'm just dying to know whatcha got me. C'mon, it's just one present each, we'll still have others to rip open on jolly ol' Saint Nick's Day tomorrow."

I had to resist the urge to look at _that_ gift again.

Damn it, girl, be _cool_.

Instead, I smiled and relented with a small sigh, "Alright, fine. Only _one_ though, got it?"

"Course!" he beamed, before gesturing a hand towards the living room with a slight bow of his head. "Ladies first."

I walked past him, exiting the kitchen and approaching where our tree stood guard over its little horde of presents. I considered them for a few seconds before picking out a bright red, flat-ish one decorated in nutcracker soldier printed gift wrap. Then I moved to the couch, making room by easing Marshmallow over a bit where he laid conked out in a deep sleep (on his back and with his tongue lolled out) before I took a seat on the middle cushion.

As I watched Lea approach the pile of gifts now to pick one out for himself, I couldn't help a small twitch as I suddenly began to regret every poor life choice I'd made that'd led up to me buying that stupid lingerie. I mean, seriously, what had I been _thinking_ when I'd let Rayne and Anna talk me into getting that silly thing? What would I even possibly _say_ when Lea unwrapped it? How would I- no, shush, relax, Elsa, it'll all be fine. Lea probably wasn't even going to pick that one. He was probably more curious about whatever the bigger, flashier-looking one could be - it was probably the whole reason he'd even suggested opening a couple right now. Yeah, that had to be it! There was no way he could be interested the measly, smaller, less fancy looking pres-

Fudge, he'd picked the lingerie.

Jerk probably _had_ caught me staring at it.

"Are you sure that's the one you want to open now?" I blurted out before my mind could catch up. Noting the slight tremor to my voice, I cleared my throat and gave a tiny nervous laugh, my fingers absently picking at the tape on my own present. "The other one's bigger. _Clunkier_ , you might even say. Could be a lot of work hauling it all the way up to the cabin, then hauling it all the way back. Maybe it'd be better if you just opened _that_ one here instead."

"Nah, I don't mind lugging it back and forth," he laughed as he plopped down onto the sofa on my other side opposite of Marshmallow, settling the abomination that was my gift into his lap. "I could use the workout anyhow! This glorious physique don't just happen on its own, ya know!" he grinned, flexing one arm and kissing his bicep.

I gave a soft snort. "True, I suppose you have to burn off all that ice cream you consume by the gallon somehow," I poked a gentle fingertip to his belly.

"Hey now, maybe I wouldn't eat so much o' the crap if the girl working at the Ice Palace weren't such a cutie," he leaned towards me with a wink.

"Oh-ho, no," I waggled a finger in his face. "You were a sugar junkie long before I got a job there, so don't even _try_ to blame your sweet tooth on me."

He smirked. "Who said I was talking 'bout you?"

I smacked him in the face with one of the couch's throw pillows.

"I mean, _obviously_ I was talking 'bout you, babe!" He reached over to tweak my nose, "You're the cutest chick who works there, no contest! ...literally, cuz you're the _only_ chick who works there, so that's not even really saying mu-"

I whacked him with the pillow again.

"I kid, I kid, c'mon, you know I think you're the most gorgeous creature in all of creation! Gimme that thing before you fluffily bludgeon me to death," he snerked, confiscating the cushion from me and tucking it away between the armrest and his hip before nudging my shoulder with his. "Now go on, open up my present to ya already!"

With a tiny shake of my head at him, I redirected my focus to the nicely wrapped gift in my lap and began carefully removing the tape. Once I'd made enough of an opening, I liberated a thin box from within. Raising an eyebrow, I lifted the lid off to discover two long, green slips of sturdy paper inside decorated with a logo on one half and lots of teeny printed text filling the rest of it. I picked them up with a little frown, squinting as I read them, then gasped and shot up to my feet, the box tumbling out of my lap down to the carpet. "How?! How did you manage to get tickets?! This musical has been sold out for _months!_ "

"I have my ways," he sighed smugly, slouching down more comfortably into the sofa cushion. "We should be able to squeeze it in before the end of winter break, so figured we could take in the show, spend a few days in the big apple, make a whole trip outta it, ya know?"

"That… that sounds _amazing_ , that-" I cut myself off, suddenly at a loss for words. Broadway was currently running my favorite musical - the one that song was from that I'd chosen to audition with for our community theater's _Wicked_ tryouts. I'd been dying to go and Lea knew that, but tickets had been impossible to get. Not so for him, it seemed. I hastily sat back down, grabbing a fistful of his shirt and yanking him over to me to kiss him thoroughly. Smiling against his lips, I then drew back just enough to whisper, "Thank you… this means a lot to me."

"Don't mention it," he murmured back, gaze hooded as he nudged the tip of my nose with his. Then he pulled away, eyes lighting up a bit as he eagerly rubbed his hands together over his own present now. "Alright, my turn!"

I paled, heart all but flatlining in my chest. Crud, I'd _completely_ forgotten. Here Lea had picked out something super sweet and thoughtful for me, and what had I gotten him in return?

Underwear.

Nay, not just underwear.

Friggin' _frilly_ underwear.

" _No!_ " I yelped, lunging for it just as he'd ripped some of the wrapping paper off one corner. Managing to snatch it out of his hands, I scrambled to stand and get it away from him. He stared blankly at me, one eyebrow quirked. Eyes darting wildly about, I said, "No, this… you don't want to open _this_ one! This one's, er…" I hid it behind my back, biting my bottom lip, "...it's nothing really, it's- you know what? Let's get you the other one! Yes, _that's_ the one you want, and _this_ one you can open, er… never? Yeah, let's say never! In fact, let's just completely forget this one ever existed and I'll go get you the other-"

Just as I'd turned to make my way back over to the tree, Lea snaked one arm out and snagged the gift back with a chipper little, "Yoink!"

"Hey!" I tried to steal it back from him, but he'd stood up to his full height, holding it high above his head where it was easily out of my reach.

Curse him, his stupid tall self and his stupid, _stupid_ long arms!

He chuckled as he pressed a quick peck to my forehead, "Now I know this is for _sure_ the one I wanna open. With you getting all flustered over it, whatever it is has _gotta_ be good!"

"But-"

"Ah-ah!" his finger booped me on the nose before he plonked back down into his seat on the couch. "Ya know it only makes me wanna open it _more_ the harder you fight it, right? Just let it go, El, it's happening."

My lips pinched sourly before I huffed and sat down as well. I grabbed another throw pillow and hugged it tightly to my chest, burying my face in it just enough for me to peek out anxiously over the top.

Alright, _fine_. Let's get this impending trainwreck over with.

But I swear, this is the _last_ time I listen to _any_ advice Anna and Rayne give me _ever_ again.

I tried not to flinch with each little tear he made in the gift wrap, the cartoony frolicking reindeers and elves printed on it seeming so deceptively innocent now when you considered what scandalous secrets lay hidden beneath them. All too soon, he was balling up the tattered remains and tossing them over his shoulder before opening the box, shifting the neatly folded tissue paper within aside and-

His whole body went still. Then he blinked once. Then twice. "Huh," was all he said at first. Then with a bemused little upward curve to one corner of his lips, he was delicately lifting the lingerie up out of the box in all its salacious glory. "...babe, I'm flattered, but blue's not really my color."

...oh god, the big clueless dope thought I'd given it to him as a joke for _him_ to wear. He didn't realize-

Fudge, now I had to _spell it out_ for him.

Having to wonder how my brain was not melting straight out of my ears at this point what with how badly my face was broiling, I set the pillow aside, folded my hands in my lap, sat up a little straighter and opened my mouth. Then swiftly snapped it back shut, cheeks cranking up the heat even further.

How… do I even put this?

Taking a deep breath, I tried again, "But it is… _my_ color..."

He dropped the garment, eyes growing round and expression slack. "Oh." A pause. Then, "Oh, so _you'd_ be the one who'd- _oh_." Picking it up again, a huge, lopsided grin spread across his suddenly rather flushed face as he eyed it in a whole new light now. "...oh, I see."

Fingers strangling the life out of each other in my lap, I looked away as I went on, "I know it's not as nice or as… _sincere_ as your gift to me was, but I promise my other present is much better and-"

" _No_ , no, none of that now, it's- I- this is-" Apparently struggling to find the right words to do justice to what he wanted to say, he instead settled for schooling his expression to be almost comically stoic as he gave big, emphatic nods with a thumbs up that then shifted into forming an O with his thumb and forefinger, signaling his approval.

I perked up a little uncertainly. "...you mean you like it? Really?"

"Oh yeah, trust me, I like it… really, _really_ like it." Lea then cleared his throat, knee bouncing up and down as his fingers idly traced back and forth over the lace embroidered into the silky fabric. "Sooooo, heh… when do we take this baby out for its first test spin? ...now? Or say, I dunno, uh…" he shrugged, clearly trying (and failing) not to sound too eager as he repeated, " _now?_ "

Down, boy.

I bit back a tiny smile. "No, _now_ we should be on the road and making our way towards the cabin," I said as I rose to my feet to head towards the bedroom, snatching the lingerie from his grasp as I moved past him.

"Hey!" He vaulted himself over the backrest of the couch in the flash, hot on my heels. "That's mine!"

Crossing my arms as I spun around to face him, I said, "Yes, but I'm simply taking it to pack it with _my_ things so we have it for the trip."

"Oh." Lea was grinning so big again now, it crinkled his guyliner. "I'll allow this."

"How very magnanimous of you," I snorted, turning to continue my journey to the bedroom once more. "I'm going to go finish packing and getting dressed, while you-" Just as I'd stepped through the door, I glanced back to discover he'd followed me in here. "...just where do you think _you're_ going?"

He hunched down to my eye level, eyebrows bouncing over his half-lidded gaze. "To help ya get dressed, of course."

"Uh-uh. No," I planted a hand firmly to his chest, forcing him to walk in reverse and back out of the room. "I know that look. We don't have _time_ for that look, we're late enough as it is. You stay out here, clean up the trashed wrapping paper, and get the rest of the gifts and Marshmallow out to the car."

"Aw c'mon, El, ya gotta lemme in there so I can help you," he insisted.

I gave him a flat look. "...do I? Do I really? Enlighten me then, please… why do I 'gotta' let you in here?"

"Er… cuz I'm a charming, lovable scamp with devilish good looks that you just can't say no to?"

I drooped my eyelids at him. Then I shut the door in his face, locking it for good measure.

Charm your way through _that_ , scamp.

My cheeks puffed as I blew out a long breath, taking a second to fan my still very heated face with my hands. I then crossed the room, tossing Lea's gift next to where my almost fully packed suitcase laid open atop the bed. I set to work grabbing whatever else I needed - things like my charger and whatnot - and stuffed them into my travel case.

I then paused in a brief moment of indecision before sighing, rolling my eyes, and sticking my hand under the mattress to retrieve the other _thing_ that Anna had made me buy from Esmeralda's Secrets. I frowned at it, then turned and held it up as I asked, "What do you think? Should I take it along?"

Bruni blinked back at me from inside his terrarium, cocking his head. Then can you guess what the little salamander did next? Go on, take a wild guess.

If your answer involved his tongue, his eyeball, and/or the swiping of said tongue over said eyeball, then you'd be correct.

I snorted. "You know, we really need to get you some new talking points as I feel you've pretty much said all you can say with that one at this point," I told him as I double checked he had enough food in there with him to keep him amply fed while we were gone. Then I gave the _thing_ in my grip one final glance with a tiny shake of my head before tucking it away inside my luggage, burying it deep beneath several layers of clothing. Chances were good it'd never see the light of day, but why not bring it just in case? I mean, the lingerie had been such a hit and we hadn't even gotten to the fun part with it yet. I could imagine this _thing_ would probably be met with equally rave reviews from Lea as well, should I muster up the courage to actually bring it out.

Now all I needed to do was pack the lingerie, get dressed, and go. I picked it up, dangling it before me as I considered it for a moment. My lips pursed to one side.

...an idea was beginning to take form in my mind.

A little wicked one.

A supremely _stupid_ one.

One that was only asking for trouble.

Honestly, I don't know what possessed me to do it.

But I did it anyway.

* * *

"Everyone else is there already. I can't believe we're actually going to be the last ones to arrive," I muttered, narrowing my eyes at the text message from Anna on my phone.

"Bah, don't sweat it," Lea chuckled as he sped his car down the highway. We'd been on it for about twenty minutes now. He glanced over at me, tipping his aviators down just enough to wink over the rim, "Just means they'll have our hot cocoa ready and waiting for us in a couple o' steaming mugs by the time we get there."

My throat gave a small, noncommittal _hmph_. "Just be glad Anna's insisting on saving the master bedroom for us instead of calling dibs on it for her and Kristoff," I told him, pocketing my phone once more. Then I said, "I still think it was silly of Saïx to drive out ahead of us on his own instead of carpooling with us. He would've been able to sleep on the ride over."

He flicked on his blinker as our lane began to merge with the next one over. "Think he plans to bail on our lil holiday bonanza a day or two earlier than the rest of us. 'Sides, pretty sure he wasn't too keen on the idea of being the overstuffed fleabag's snuggle buddy on the whole drive over," he sniggered as he stretched a hand behind him into the backseat without looking to give Marshmallow a couple of affectionate pats to the head. "Hey!" he quickly snatched the hand back when his love was reciprocated with tooth hugs.

"Well then, his loss." I grinned as I twisted around in my seat to give the dog scritches under the chin, cooing, "Isn't that right, Marshmallow?"

Did that sound like an invitation to come sit in my lap? Because apparently to Marshmallow, it did. In the blink of an eye, he'd excitedly squeezed his way through the space between our two front seats to crush me under the mountain of white fluff that was him, tail thumping away at a mile a minute against the dash. Quite a feat considering there was barely enough space in the car seat to accommodate the colossal canine alone, much less the _both_ of us. To this day, I'm still not quite sure how Marshmallow had managed to wedge himself up here with me.

After much cackling from Lea and wheezed coaxing from me, Marshmallow was finally persuaded a few minutes later to clamber back into the backseat once more, though not without a healthy dose of whining and puppy-dog pouting. Able to breathe again, I inhaled deeply as I began to straighten myself back out - the assault of doggy cuddles had left me in a bit of a disarray. I swept the few stray pale tendrils of my hair that had escaped back into my bun, smoothed the rumples out of my off the shoulder button-up blouse, and-

"Holy _shit_ , is that... Under your clothes, you're already _wearing_ it?!" Lea fumbled with his shades, perching them atop his head as his suddenly wide-eyed stare was now in a tug-of-war between my leg and watching the road.

With a start, I glanced down to discover that Marshmallow's little snuggle ambush had caused my knee-length skirt with a side-slit to ride up a bit, revealing the lacy garter (complete with a little blue bow) wrapped around my thigh that was holding up my black sheer stockings. Blushing furiously, I hastily jerked the hem of my skirt back down to hide it again and awkwardly avoided his gaze as I crossed my legs, mumbling, "...maybe."

Yes.

I _was_ already wearing it.

"It" being the lingerie.

Which, by the way if you hadn't guessed by now, was the supremely stupid thing I'd decided to do.

Lea said nothing, just continued to gawk at me.

Gosh, if my cheeks burned any brighter, Santa would be asking _me_ to guide his sleigh tonight instead of Rudolph.

Talk. I needed to _talk_. To fill this silence that was making me fidget restlessly under his gaze. Go on, mouth, just move and make with the words already. _Any_ words. "...it's... actually rather comfortable." ...okay? "The lingerie, that is." Oh good. Thanks for clarifying the obvious. "Wouldn't think it would be. Would've thought it'd be more designed in favor of being, ah… _aesthetically pleasing_ at the expense of comfort." Oh dear, where was I going with this? "I mean, I tried it on before buying it. Of course I did, it'd be silly _not_ to at least make sure it- but, you know, I only had it on for a grand total of a minute in the fitting room, not really long enough to tell if- but now that I've had it on for an, er… extended period, I can say that it's, uh… it's quite comfortable. The silk is real nice, real… _smooth_ against the skin." I take it back. Stop talking. Stop talking _this instant_. "Fits like a glove, as the saying goes, not… tight or restricting at all like I'd imagined it might be. The whole thing's really quite flexible with a plenty of give, actually…" Your license to speak has been revoked, mouth, you hear me? _Zip it!_ "I shouldn't have any problems bending or twisting into any sort of posi-"

The car beside us suddenly blared its horn - apparently Lea had been a little _too_ preoccupied by my line of discussion and in his distraction had begun to accidentally drift into the next lane over. " _Fuck_ ," he hissed, swerving us back into our proper lane. Clearing his throat as he shot the other vehicle a quick, apologetic wave, he told me, "Love, I'm dying to hear the end of that sentence, trust me, I'm _highly_ invested at this point, but we're gonna hafta put a pin in it and circle back round to it later cuz this is a dangerous conversation to be having with a man while he's driving."

You heard the man, mouth. Friggin' _cram it_.

Pressing my lips firmly together, I tugged at the hem of my skirt again and gave a single curt nod, making no further comment.

We drove in silence for a minute as the trees of the forest around us blurred past our windows. Lea's eyes kept flicking to me out of the corner of his peripheral. He coughed into his fist and vigorously ruffled his fingers through his hair before returning his grip to the wheel. His knee began to jiggle up and down. Then, "Hey, uh… how 'bout we make a pit stop somewhere?"

I glanced towards him, my head tipping to one side. "A pit stop?"

"Yeah, so we can, ya know... stretch our legs… and other things," he wickedly smirked as he reached over the center console for my hand and brought it up to his lips, bouncing his eyebrows at me over my knuckles as he pressed a kiss to them.

A noise that was half laugh, half scoff escaped me. "There's not another rest stop for miles."

He shrugged. "I'm not picky. I'm sure a nice thicket could do in a pinch."

I gave him a flat look. "...a thicket? Really?"

"What? I'll make sure it's a romantic one! A _classy_ one!"

"And how, pray tell, do you make a thicket classy?" I crossed my arms under my chest, arching an eyebrow at him.

"By keeping our pinkies raised the whole time!" Lea beamed, holding one hand up and wiggling his little finger.

Snorting, I shook my head. "No stops until we get there, understood?"

A harsh little huff emitted from his throat, " _Fine_." Then his foot pressed down harder on the gas and the engine thrummed louder as we started passing the other cars more quickly.

I hummed a soft laugh, "Oh sure, _now_ you're in a hurry to get there."

"Well yeah! Ya said it yourself: we're late. Just trynta make up for lost time!" One corner of his lips quirked up as he added, "'Sides, the sooner we get there, the sooner I can unwrap my present."

"You know you're not allowed to open the other one until tomorrow morning," I tutted.

"That's not what I meant and you know it," he not so subtly eyed me up and down, leaving zero doubt as to _exactly_ what he meant.

Suppressing the urge to squirm, my hands swiped the nonexistent wrinkles out of my skirt as I dropped a casual, "Goodness, all this fuss and you haven't even seen part two of your gift yet."

He shot me a double-take. "Jesus _Christ_ , there's a _part two?!_ "

I'm with him, there's a part two?! Mouth, what are you even-

...oh dear, I was talking about the _thing_ tucked away in my luggage between my dresses and my nightgown, wasn't I?

Damn Anna to the bloody ninth circle of hell for ever making me buy that infernal thing!

Alright, mouth, we can still get out of this. Remember the three B's: backtrack, backtrack, backtrack! Just go on and work your magic.

"Guess you'll just have to wait until later tonight to find out."

...mouth, you're fired.

Lea gave a low whistle and grinned big. "Somebody musta told Santa that I've been a _very_ good boy this year," he murmured, his gaze drifting towards me again. Then traveling downward. Searching. As if he could somehow catch a glimpse of the lingerie hidden beneath through sheer force of will alone.

"Hey now, eyes on the road, mister," I chided.

He pouted, but did as he was told.

I snorted, "What's with the face? It's not like you can see anything anyway, you don't have x-ray vision."

"And I curse my goddamn maker every day for such a heinous oversight," he grumbled under his breath as he slipped his aviators back down onto his face.

We ended up making it to the cabin in record time. It wasn't currently snowing, but a thick glittering blanket of white had coated everything around us, from the ground to the trees to the cabin itself. Lea parked us next to the other cars and as he shut off the engine and the heat with it, I shrugged into my long heavy coat. I probably didn't really need it, the walk to the door would take less than ten seconds and I'd never been one to freeze easily, but it would be one less thing to carry.

Marshmallow was making it abundantly clear he was ready to no longer be trapped inside the car as he pawed at the back door and whimpered. Chuckling and telling him to hang on, I reached back to clip on his leash before exiting the vehicle myself, my knee high boots sinking into the snow as I let him out. He nearly ripped my arm out of my socket when he tried to bolt to investigate his new strange surroundings with all its new strange scents, but I managed to keep him in check if only just barely. Lea, having wrapped a black and red checkered scarf around his neck and donned his own thick jacket, took it upon himself to grab our suitcases seeing as how I pretty much had my hands full maintaining control of Marshmallow.

"We're here!" I called out as I opened the front door and let Marshmallow pull me inside, Lea following us and kicking the door shut behind him before dumping our things on the floor. As I knelt down to remove the leash once more, Marshmallow's nostrils suddenly flared with a big sniff before his ears perked and he went very still, his eyes intently focused on the hallway that led to the main sitting room. Oh-ho, I knew who he smelled. The second the leash was unclipped, the big wall of fur excitedly charged off deeper into the house.

I shook my head with a tiny grin as I slipped out of my coat and folded it over the banister next to the entrance. Before I could follow in my dog's tracks however, I felt Lea's hand closing around mine. He gently tugged me back and spun me around to face him, backing me up against the banister as he planted his hands on top of it to either side of me, trapping me between it and his body. Then he was leaning in real close, eyes hooded as his nose brushed alongside mine, his breath tickling my lips as he purred, "Ya know what I was thinking?"

I gave a low hum, reaching up to straighten his collar before resting my hands against his chest, absently smoothing out any creases in the fabric as I asked softly, "What were you thinking?"

His eyes crinkled slightly as he dipped his head, nosing the sensitive skin just beneath my ear and making me shiver. "Was thinkin' you should help me take the luggage to our room."

Translation: he was eager to "unwrap his gift."

A smile tugged at one corner of my mouth. "I see. Well, here's what _I'm_ thinking…"

"Mm-hm," he prompted distractedly, straightening up just enough to try and go in for a kiss.

He probably thought he could seduce me to our bedroom with the power of his lips alone. And you know, he might have been right. He was a _really_ good kisser.

Which is why I clamped my hand over his mouth at the last second, grinned sweetly up at him and said, "I'm thinking I know how much you love being a gentleman and I would simply _hate_ to rob you of this ideal moment of chivalry by offering _any_ sort of help with our suitcases. You're welcome." I lightly patted him on the cheek before trying to slip free of his arms. I didn't make it far however before he'd snagged me around the waist, pulling me up against him. I sighed, "Come on, Lea, the others are waiting for us."

"And they can wait a lil bit longer while we…" that wicked curve to his lips resurfaced, "settle in. It'll be fine, we'll see them later tonight." A thoughtful pause before he waggled his eyebrows, hooking a finger under my chin as he began to lean in once more, murmuring, "Make that tomorrow."

" _There_ you two are!" Anna suddenly came bursting into the room with her signature bubbly laugh. "Was beginning to think you got friggin' lost!"

Whew! Saved by the baby sister!

Don't get me wrong, Lea was making a tempting offer. _More_ than tempting. It's just that we hadn't made the trip all the way up to this cabin only to just lock ourselves in a room together for god knew how long. No, I'd come here to spend time with my friends and family. It was rather rare that I actually _chose_ to spend time with a large group of people, but something about the holidays brought that out in me I suppose. There would be plenty of time for that _other_ stuff later after everyone had turned in for the night. Lea would just have to wait his turn.

His shoulders slumped and he sulked a bit at being interrupted, but Anna hardly noticed as she snagged my arm, "C'mon, everyone's in the living room!"

"Hold it!" Lea hadn't let go of my hand yet. "El's gotta, uh… help me find our room first!"

"Oh! Up the stairs, first one on the left, you can't miss it!" Anna happily chirped, not wasting another second to drag me off.

He reluctantly let my fingers slip free of his this time as he released a low, grumbling huff. I glanced back at him as I let myself be towed along, crinkling my nose in amusement. He crinkled his back, though his was oozing snark. Could a nose crinkle even be snarky? Because if it could, his was _decidedly_ so. With that, I lost sight of him as I was yanked around the corner and down the hall.

I could hear the rumble of chatter and laughter growing louder as we drew near before we stepped into the large family room. Everyone was seated cozily around the large roaring fireplace. Sora had little Cayde (or at least, I _thought_ it was Cayde… I was still getting the hang of telling them apart) settled in his lap while both he and Kairi laughed and made goofy faces for the baby. Riku was nearby, keeping his watchful dad eye on them while holding a conversation with Kristoff at the same time. Rayne and Aria were nowhere to be seen, but I suspected the latter had probably been in need of a change and so had been taken into another room to have that dealt with.

Marshmallow was _exactly_ where I expected him to be - sprawled across Saïx's lap, whether Saïx liked it or not. It looked like there might have been a bit of a kerfuffle for Saïx seemed slightly ruffled, but in the end he'd apparently just accepted his fate and currently had his laptop settled on Marshmallow's back as he typed away at it, a mildly miffed expression twisting his face behind his glasses. Roxas and Xion were seated in armchairs close to him, snickering and shoving each other's shoulders over something.

"Look who I found!" Anna announced as she brought me further into the room. They all looked up and I was met with a round of boisterous greetings. Giving my arm one final squeeze before releasing it, Anna said, "Have a seat! I'll go bring in the snacks now that we're all here!"

I began, "Oh, I'd be happy to help with-"

"No, that's fine! I really only require the assistance of one big, handsome, strapping gentleman and I have just the _perfect_ one in mind..." As she spoke those words, Kristoff perked up and turned his head towards her with a huge smile. "...Sora!"

"Huh, wha?" Sora froze mid-squishing his cheeks together for Cayde at the sound of his own name, blinking a couple times. Kristoff looked positively crestfallen.

Anna snerked. "Kidding! Of course I was talking about _you_ , you big dummy," she planted a quick peck to Kristoff's chin, which seemed to mollify him. Then she gathered both his hands in hers with a chipper, "Now c'mon!" before tugging him off towards the kitchen.

I grinned after them before glancing around for a place to sit. Saïx and Marshmallow were the only ones on their couch and though my beloved four-legged friend did admittedly take up a lot of space, the two of them were on the far side of it and it was a long couch so there was still plenty of room left. I eased myself down on the opposite end from them beside where the "kiddos" had seemingly picked up their conversation right where it'd left off.

"'Lemme copy your homework, Xion. Do _all_ the work on the group project, Xion,'" she was reciting in a voice that I believe was a mock imitation of Roxas's. Then she gave a scoff, albeit in good-humor, "I swear, Rox, I'm nothing more than just a puppet for you to boss around."

"That's right, dance on my strings, puppet!" Roxas cackled back, waggling his fingers in the air above his head as if to manipulate said imaginary strings and earning himself yet another shove to his shoulder.

I listened with half an ear, momentarily distracted as my eyes scanned the room. Where was it? I knew it just _had_ to be here somew-

Ah-ha! There! Dangling from the archway Anna and I had just come through a moment before.

Mistletoe.

I silently filed away its location for later. It'd be useful. Trust me.

"Just be grateful winter break arrived in the nick of time to save your punk ass because I was _this_ close to throttling you," Xion sighed, rolling her eyes before flashing me a long-suffering smile. "I tell ya, Elsa, one of these days this doof will no longer have me around to cover for him and he'll be a total wreck without me!"

He looked aghast, clutching his chest. "No! Xion, you could never abandon me!" A beat. "...who else will I have ice cream with?"

"What am I, chopped liver?" Lea's voice suddenly piped up, drawing our attention. Apparently all done toting our luggage up to our room, he now came striding in, mussing up both Xion's and Roxas's hair by way of hello as he passed them, "Look who got here early."

Roxas swatted his hand away, "No, you're just late."

Lea placed a palm on the back of the couch, catapulting himself over it to land heavily in the spot between me and Marshmallow. Slipping an arm around my shoulders, he declared, "The life of the party is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."

"I'm sorry, why are you talking about Sora now?" Xion slyly teased.

"Yeah, he actually showed up on time unlike _your_ late ass," Roxas sniggered before releasing a tiny, hissed "ow" when Lea delivered a swift kick to his shin.

Rolling his eyes, Lea sighed, "So what were you squirts talking about before I got here?"

Xion smirked over at her blond friend, "About how lost Rox would be if he didn't have me around to carry his lazy butt all the time. And we're talking _completely_ lost. Bet he wouldn't even know who he was anymore."

He shrugged, "Psh, what are you talking about? I am me, nobody else."

"You're a chimp is what you are," she poked him in the cheek. "You're lucky you even know your own name, much less how to spell it. If it weren't for me, you'd of flunked outta college _ages_ ago."

"Ooo, we're talking about college?" Anna chimed into the conversation as she came bustling back into the room precariously managing four mugs of hot cocoa, two in each hand. Kristoff was right behind her bearing a couple trays of Christmas cookies and pastries. One of the cocoas was sweetly delivered to me before the others were distributed and Anna sent Kristoff back to the kitchen to continue ferrying in more after he'd left the snacks on a coffee table. Happily flopping down into a nearby armchair, she popped one of the sweets into her mouth before continuing, "I can't believe I have less than a year before I graduate! Unlike _some_ people…" Her eyes smugly drifted to Lea.

"Hey now, rude! Shit, why the drive-by? I'm working through my credits as fast as I can," he grumbled as he accepted one of the cocoas Kristoff had returned with and blew on it. Then one side of his mouth quirked up at he told Kristoff, "My my, she's got ya trained good, huh?"

His only response was a hand gesture that was less than PG. Lea just snorted at that.

"What are your plans after college? I don't think you've told me yet," I asked my sister, hazarding a slow careful sip. Mmmm, chocolate! I cradled it close in both hands, enjoying the warmth seeping into my fingers.

Anna grabbed a handful of holiday truffles, tossing one up in the air and catching it in her mouth with a huge grin before answering. "Thinking of going to work with dad at the company!"

I choked on the second sip I'd just been taking, coughing a bit. "R-really?"

I could picture Anna doing a _lot_ of things. Some stuffy corporate politics job? Not so much.

"Don't act so surprised!" she laughed. "You know I've worked there every summer practically all my life! I like it, and I'm actually pretty good at it too! I think maybe I could run that place one day!"

"Ah, so good to see that the archaic practice of nepotism is still alive and well," Saïx dryly drawled, not looking up from his screen nor pausing in his typing.

My sister huffed, narrowing her eyes at him. "Shush, you! It wasn't handed to me, I've worked my sweet friggin' little butt off for this! Am _still_ working my butt off, thank you very much! And I'll have you know one day when I'm handed the keys to the kingdom, there's going to be some changes around there! I think I could do some real good in the world once I'm in charge! So you can kindly shove it," she razzed her tongue at him before slipping three more sugary treats into her mouth with as much lofty dignity as anyone could do such a thing. It was actually rather impressive.

Saïx merely gave a low _hmph_ at that, fingers still tapping away. Lea drooped his eyelids at him before shifting his leg over to nudge his brother's shoe with his Converse. "Oi. You _seriously_ working right now, dude? C'mon, man, it's Christmas! Quit being such a scrooge, have a heart and let loose a lil!" As he spoke, I could feel his thumb idly tracing light circles in the hollow of my bare shoulder, probably missing having my braid to fiddle with.

"If I had a heart, this would be where I die of laughter," Saïx muttered, squinting at his screen with a thoughtful frown before pressing the backspace a couple times.

"Don't be silly, course you have a heart!" Roxas beamed and shrugged. "Small and shriveled, yes, but it's there!"

Xion rose, moving to instead take a seat on the armrest next to Saïx. "Yeah, you're not a scrooge, you're a grinch! We just need to give you some hugs and eggnog and that heart'll grow three sizes, you'll see!" she giggled, throwing her arms around his shoulders and squeezing hard.

"Ugh, will the intrusions never end?" Saïx huffed, trying to pry himself free of her vice-like embrace but to no avail.

"Shh, you know you love it!"

I had a growing suspicion Lea's interest in the current conversation had waned, for I could sense his intent gaze on me now as I bent forward to put my half drunk cocoa down on the coffee table and reach for the nearest snack tray. As I settled back more comfortably into my seat, he brought up a hand to tuck a stray wisp of my hair that had gotten free back behind my ear before ducking his head to trail feather light kisses down the slope of my neck that left little tingles in their wake. I turned my head to look at him through lowered lashes and he grinned, moving to close the distance between our lips and-

-I crammed a christmas cookie in his mouth.

Nice try, bucko, but you're not going to trick me up to the bedroom _that_ easily.

"Ah! You two made it! _Finally!_ " Rayne came into the room just then, toting Aria on her hip. "Yeesh, took ya long enough!" she smiled as I stood up and we hugged each other. Then she was offering me the baby with an abrupt, "Here, hold this."

I tensed, blinking a couple times, my hands twitching but making no other movements to accept the burbling infant from her. "I… er…"

"Here, I'll take her," Lea muffled out around the mouthful of cookie he was still choking down thanks to me, reaching up to pluck Aria from Rayne's hands and sitting her down in his lap.

I released a silent sigh of relief. Could you believe it had been _weeks_ since the twins had been born and I had still yet to actually hold either one of them? Some godmother I was turning out to be. But dammit, babies were just so squishy and fragile! What if I accidentally _broke_ one of them?

Uh-uh. No. Not on my watch.

Just keep the babies away from me and my klutzy hands. Really, it'd be in _everyone's_ best interest.

"So, uh… have you finished getting their nursery all set up at long last?" I asked as I settled into my seat on the couch once more.

"Yes, finally!" Rayne grinned as she squeezed into Anna's armchair with her and my sister rested her head on her shoulder. "Since Cayde was an unexpected surprise, hadta do a lot of scrambling getting a second crib and other such things for him. Plus it took goddamn _ages_ scrubbing and bleaching every last inch of your old room."

"Bleaching?" Lea echoed curiously, bouncing a laughing Aria on his knee. I couldn't help but notice however that his gaze had drifted to where the mistletoe hung, seemingly just now having noticed it. I could all but see the wheels turning behind those crafty green eyes of his.

My ex-roommate gave him a flat look. "Red, please. You used to spend the night over. A _lot_. No tykes of mine are gonna be playing somewhere you two used to do the frick-frack constantly without it being properly and _thoroughly_ disinfected and sanitized first."

"Ah," was the only response he made to that. As Rayne then got momentarily distracted by her husband coming over to give her surprise smooches, Lea leaned closer to me, muttering low out of the corner of his mouth so only I could hear, "Take it we're not gonna tell her 'bout their living room couch then?"

Feeling heat creeping up the back of my neck, I cleared my throat and shook my head, answering a quick but just as quiet, "No."

"Or the kitchen countertops? Or that one time on the dining table? Or-"

" _No_. No, none of it," I hissed, face full on roasting now.

What can I say? Lea could be very, ahem… _persuasive_ when it came to having his way.

"Oh!" Anna suddenly straightened up in her seat excitedly as it seemed she'd just remember something. "You auditioned for the Spring musical, right? Have they announced who got what parts yet?"

Grateful for the subject change, I eagerly nodded, "Yes, actually, they just posted the cast sheet yesterday afternoon." A surge of giddiness filled my chest as I bit back a grin. "...I got the lead."

"Wha- Seriously?! Oh my friggin' god! _Sis!_ Congratulations! And you're only _now_ telling me? You should have said something sooner, this is a big deal!"

Lea glanced up from blowing air raspberries for a happily squealing Aria to say, "That's what _I_ kept trynta tell her."

"I'd hardly call community theater a big deal," I self-consciously brushed off, the pleased smile I was fighting growing wider despite myself. "...I _am_ really excited about it though."

"And you should be, sweetpea!" Rayne reached for my hands in my lap, covering them with her own. "Community theater it may be, but the people there still know their shit! They've recognized your talent and are trusting you with more responsibility! Your first official lead! That's huge!"

"Today, community theater… tomorrow, Broadway… the day after that, the world," Lea intoned in a dramatic whisper.

I rolled my eyes with a small grin, "That's not exactly how it w-"

"Too late. Already said it. It's happening."

As I shook my head at him, Anna hopped up to her feet, struck a finger up in the air and declared, "This calls for celebration! Be right back with something to spike the cocoa with!" With that, she blurred out of the room back towards the kitchen.

I shyly accepted a few more congrats from everyone else before conversation gradually turned to other topics and I just contentedly listened for a bit. The chit chat began to fade into the background however as I glanced towards Lea.

Gosh, he was so good with Aria. How did he make it look so easy? Not to mention there was something so pure and comically endearing about seeing this absolute behemoth of a man with his mess of untamed red hair, guyliner, and black nail polish being so gentle as he played peek-a-boo with the tiny baby. I know I'd already thought he'd make an amazing father one day, but thinking it and actually seeing him in action were two _completely_ different things. Watching the two of them right now-

Oh dear, it was doing things to me.

You know. Stomach butterflies, knees going weak, insides turning into mush kind of things.

Things that must have been as plain as day to read on my face for Lea happened to look over at me, blink a couple times, then quirk an eyebrow as his gaze flicked back and forth between me and Aria while he put two and two together. Then he smirked. Turning the infant to face me now, he took on a high-pitch, munchkin-like voice as he began guiding Aria's arms into flourishing gestures as if she were the one talking instead of him, "Come, m'dear, and let awesome, suave, _studly_ Unkie Lea whisk you away to the bedroom to ravage you and introduce you to whole new worlds of pleasure."

I gave him a blank stare. "...are you seriously trying to seduce me with a baby right now?"

His grin turned toothy. "Depends. Is it working?"

Kind of.

Sort of.

Yes.

"No."

Liar.

Pretty sure he knew it too, what with the way he was squinting at me with that crooked little half-grin of his. His lips parted, but before he could utter another word, Anna practically bounced back into the room.

"We got Crème De Menthe," she held up a long, skinny green bottle in one hand, "we got Kahlúa," her other hand waggled a smaller brown bottle, "we got it all, take your pick! But first, I took a look out the window while I was in the kitchen and now I have a very important question for you." She set the booze down on the table, stood in front of me with both hands firmly planted on her hips and gave me her most serious expression as she stared down her nose at me. Abruptly, she broke out into an ear-to-ear smile, "Do you wanna build a snowman?"

"Hell _yeah_ I do!" Sora finally tore his attention away from Cayde to enthusiastically shout across the room, causing Kairi to smother a snicker behind her hand.

"I'm in," Roxas was already on his feet and making his way towards where his warmer outerwear had been carelessly tossed onto some of the other furniture.

Xion was not too far behind him with a, "Me too! Bet my snowman will totally kick _your_ snowman's frozen powdered ass!"

"Oh, it's on!"

Humming a small laugh, I nodded at Anna, "I'd love to."

Before I could rise from my seat however, I felt Lea's hand grabbing mine. "You sure about that, babe? You're not really, ya know…" his eyes briefly flicked down to indicate my clothes. More specifically, what was concealed _beneath_ my clothes. "... _dressed_ for cold weather and ya might catch a chill. So whaddya say we get you upstairs and-"

"Ah-ah," I pressed a fingertip to his lips, silencing him. "I'll be _fine_. You know the cold never bothered me anyway. I just need to snag a pair of gloves and go grab my coat from the foyer." I pressed a quick kiss to his cheek before standing.

I'd barely managed to take a step however before Lea'd hastily dumped Aria into Saïx's unsuspecting hands and charged past me to stand in my path, right smack dab beneath the-

"Hold it!" he held his palm up in my face, then smirked, propped one shoulder against the inside of the archway he occupied now and pointed up with a smug, "Mistletoe."

I narrowed my eyes at the little sprig above his head, then crossed my arms as my eyelids drooped. "And I suppose you're expecting a kiss now?"

"Tradition _demands_ it and who are we to scoff in the face of tradition? 'Sides, you wanna get your coat, you'll have to get through me first. So pucker up, schmoopsie-poo, cuz these lips aren't gonna kiss themselves!" He stretched a hand towards me, adding a low, "C'mere."

I considered his awaiting hand for a moment. Then I met his gaze, one corner of my mouth quirking up before I snagged the nearest thing - or rather, nearest _person_ , which just so happened to be Roxas as he was running by. "You heard the man: those lips aren't going to kiss themselves!" I winked at the blond before giving him a little push towards Lea.

"You ready, big guy, because here comes some sweet, sweet sugar!" Roxas cackled as he latched onto him and made kissy noises.

"Get off, ya twerp!" Lea growled, planting a hand on Roxas's face and trying to wriggle free of his stranglehold.

"But, dude!" he muffled back against his palm. "Tradition _demands_ it and who are we to scoff in the face of tradition?"

"I believe it's now someone else's turn to hold the infant," I suddenly heard Saïx dryly announce and I glanced back towards him to see him looking quite unamused as he held Aria upside down by one ankle at arms length. She giggled in delight as she reached for Marshmallow, who obliged her with a curious snuffle of her fingers. As Rayne gasped and rushed to take her from him, I shook my head with a grin and quickly slipped past Lea while he was still busy trying to extract himself from Roxas's grapple and thus was unable to stop me.

And to think… the holiday shenanigans had only just begun.

* * *

"Welp, that's game!" Lea declared with a clap. Rising from the couch, he pulled me up with him and tried to drag me off as he hastily added, "Was fun guys, but we're gonna call it an early night. C'mon, El."

"What?" I laughed softly, digging my heels in and bringing us both to a lurching stop. "That was just the first round. We haven't even scored yet," I chided as I started leading him back towards the sofa.

He let me, huffing out a low sigh as he grumpily plopped back down into his seat and muttered under his breath, "Whaddya think I've been _trying_ to do this whole time…"

I narrowed my eyes at him, pinching his arm for the comment.

"Oo, the foreplay's starting early, huh?" he waggled his eyebrows at me.

I pinched him harder.

"Babe, ya know you're only encouraging me at this point, right?"

I snorted, shifting tactics and shoving the notepad and pencil into his hands, "Just figure out the points please?"

"Fiiiiiine," he made an exaggerated show of rolling his eyes before scratching the pencil across the paper, tongue licking one corner of his lips as he worked. I shot the rest of the group a tiny apologetic smile.

It seemed Lea was getting a bit antsy for his gift.

I suppose he had been being rather patient for a while now. We had all spent several hours out in the snow - for the record, Xion's snowman had indeed kicked Roxas's snowman's frozen powdered butt. Lea had tried to corner me once or twice out there for some, hrm… _snogging_ , but a well-timed handful of snow to his face did wonders for cooling that fiery passion of his down if only for a moment. Several snow angels and snowball fights later and we'd all finally had our fill and come back inside to warm ourselves by the fireplace once more. We were well past lunchtime now, but we still had plenty of snacks to tide us over until dinner. In the meantime, we'd decided to get a game of charades going at Anna's request.

At least, that's what we were _attempting_ to do…

Of course, it'd help if the scorekeeper was actually doing his job correctly.

Or, you know… _at all._

"Alright, lessee here…" Lea mumbled, pencil still furiously scribbling away. "You, my love, have four points, I have negative seventeen, and looks like Riku's won with… hm, carry the one… one million points. _Now_ that's game! Shucks, too bad, so sad, let's go, El." Dropping the pad and pencil to the couch cushions, he snagged my hand and hopped up to his feet once more.

"Sit," came my simple yet firm command as I yanked him back down next to me. Pushing the pencil and notepad squarely into his chest, I told him, "Do it _right_."

As Lea released a sigh through his nose, Riku snorted from where he sat in another couch snuggled up close with his wife. "Do you even know the score? Have you been paying attention at all?"

"Course I know it! Got it memorized up here in the ol' noggin," he poked the pencil's eraser to his temple with a grin. However it quickly faded into a frown as he squinted down at the paper, tapping his writing utensil against it a couple times. "...but, I mean… if anyone else'd wanna compare notes and tell me what they _think_ the point totals are, I'd only be too happy to let 'em know if they're right or wrong."

"But I thought you already knew the score, Mr Got-It-Memorized," Kairi sniggered, mockingly tapping a fingertip to the side of her forehead.

"I do. That was a test, and one ya just failed, princess. Minus fifty points for Kairi," Lea razzed his tongue at her as he wrote that down.

Sora groaned, "I want a new scorekeeper!"

"And _that's_ minus one hundred points for _you_ , bucko!"

Oh dear. We'd given the doofus _way_ too much power.

" _I'll_ take over keeping track of points," Rayne volunteered as she smiled and shook her head at my boyfriend's antics.

"Treason! Minus _one thousand_ points for Raindrop for the villainy, attempted mutiny, and-"

I snatched the notepad from his fingers and smacked his shoulder with it before tossing it to Rayne who chirped a little "thank you!" at me as she caught it. I tried to confiscate the pencil as well, but he held it up high and away from me. As I stretched across him to reach for it, he took advantage of my new close proximity to plant a small peck to the tip of my nose.

I drooped my eyelids up at him.

Fine then. Keep the pencil, you big dork.

Anna piped up now, "Alright, we'll just call that first round a warm-up! Points start now!" She glanced over her shoulder and called out, "You're missing out on all the fun, Saïx, you sure you don't wanna join us?"

He'd moved some time ago to a table on the other side of the room far away from the rest of us, still hard at work on his laptop with Marshmallow curled up at his feet. "There's nothing I'd hate more," came his flat reply.

"So sayeth Mr Holly-Jolly himself," Lea muttered, staring up at the ceiling now as he balanced the pencil on his nose. I tried to swipe it, but he was faster in grabbing it off himself and once again keeping it out of my reach.

"Since we're starting off fresh, how about some new teams? Gals versus guys?" Xion suggested. She then bumped her shoulder into Roxas's with a goading smirk, "Unless, ya know, you're too _scared_ of getting your asses handed to you by a buncha _girls_."

He snerked, bumping her back harder. "Bring it!"

As the others began weighing in as well on the new arrangement for the teams, I felt it. This tiny tickle against my thigh. I glanced down to discover Lea trying to use the eraser end of the pencil to covertly lift the side slit of my skirt for another discreet peek at the garter.

I lightly slapped his hand away and stood up, quickly saying, "You know, girls against boys sounds like an _excellent_ idea. I think I'll go sit with my new teammates over _here_." I squeezed into the other couch between Anna and the armrest, edging Riku out from the opposite end and forcing him to find another seat. Across from Lea now, I shot him a pointed look with one eyebrow arched and a small smirk.

He just sulkily slumped further down into his own seat, knee jiggling up and down as he began gnawing on the pencil.

Oh yeah. _Definitely_ antsy.

But no need to pout there, buddy, you and I both know you secretly love the torture of being forced to wait.

...was it wrong of me to actually be kind of enjoying this newfound power over him so much?

"Alright! Now that that's all settled, let the games begin!" Anna beamed before her blue gaze settled on me. "Sis, why don't you start us off?"

I stiffened. "Wha- me?" I bit down on my lower lip, eyes darting to the left as my hands began to fidget with each other in my lap. "...are you sure? Maybe it'd be better if someone _else-_ "

"Elsa," she interrupted me, placing both hands on my shoulders. "Sis. I love you. You know I do. But you royally _suck_ at charades."

"Hey!" I narrowed my eyes at her.

She shrugged, "Don't you 'hey' me, it's true!"

My face pinched sourly. "...okay, fair. But still… cheap shot."

An unapologetic grin pulled at her lips. "So now that we've got that established, don't you think getting the absolute travesty that will be your turn out of the way first so the rest of the team can help us finish strong might be the best call?"

I fixed her with a dull stare. "Gee, thanks for sugar coating it."

"No prob!" she giggled before her eyes turned expectant. "Sooo…?"

"Fine, just give me my word and let's get this over with," I relented with a sigh and held my hand out. Anna's face lit up and she offered me the basket full of tiny folded bits of paper. I plucked one up without much consideration and rose, stomping a few steps away.

We all remember what a "fan" of charades I am, right?

Not.

Ugh, the things I do for my sister.

Was it too late to be dragged off by Lea so he could have his manly way with me instead?

Releasing another sigh as I took my spot, I turned to face the others with a steely look of determination now. I'd show Anna. Time to put all those acting classes I'd been taking to good use! My team was going to guess my word so fast, they wouldn't even know what hit them. I was going to _own_ this word. I was going to charade the _hell_ out of this word! But first… alright, you stupid word, let's find out what you are. I opened the little slip of paper and squinted down at it.

…ice?

…

What the frick was I supposed to do with _ice?!_

"All set?" came the sound of Kristoff's voice and my head shot up, eyes wide and skin drained of color. Does this _look_ like the face of someone who's 'all set'?! "Good! Timer starts in three…"

Wait.

"...two…"

No.

"...one…"

Stop!

" _...GO!_ "

Fudge.

He flipped over the small plastic hourglass and I…

...just stood there like a deer caught in the headlights.

"You got this, Elsa!" Anna called out to me. Oh sure, thanks for the vote of confidence _now_. Too little, too late, Sis. "...any time." No really? And here I was just standing around doing nothing on purpose because I figured that's how you win. "Just… just do it with your body!" Gah, I'm _trying!_

Okay, think, Elsa, think! Ice… how do I get them to say _ice…_ Ice, ice, ice… ice...berg? ...Icicle? ...ice, ice, baby? Oh come on, Elsa, stop being silly and focus! Ice…

_...cube!_

Ice cube! Yes, I think I could work with that!

I suddenly snapped into action, my hands blocking out a large shape in the air.

"Oh, oh, square!" Anna said excitedly.

Rayne tipped her head to one side, asking, "A rectangle?"

Kairi chimed in with, "A box!"

I twirled my index finger sideways, indicating for them to keep going before I began outlining the same shape again.

"Television box!"

"Lunch box!"

"Juke box!"

Gah, move on from the infernal word _box_ already, people!

Xion squinted and gave a doubtful, "...microwave?"

"Crate!"

"Toaster!"

" _Croaster!_ " Anna shouted, bouncing up and down in her seat before freezing with a frown. "Wait… that's not a word…"

Despairing and not knowing what else to do, I kept miming the same shape in the air, just more frantically now.

As if doing it faster would somehow help the situation.

"Cube!"

Oh wow, it actually had!

I clapped and nodded vigorously, hopping on the balls of my feet. Alright, onto phase two, which…

...there was no phase two.

Crud.

I had zero idea how to get them from cube to _ice_ cube.

I did _not_ think this through.

Alright. Forget cube. Cube was stupid. Cube is out the window. New plan!

...got it! Okay, no, this was good. They were going to get it for _sure_ this time. It was so obvious, I should've thought of it sooner. When you think of ice, you think of…

...ice _skating_.

Smiling and sure of myself now, I spread my arms out wide to either side of me and balanced on one foot, like a skater gliding on one blade across a frozen pond.

"Oh, ah… ballerina!"

"Tightrope walker!"

"Er… a tree? Maybe?"

A tree? I looked down at myself. How was this a friggin' tree?!

I locked gazes with Anna and stretched my pose out further for emphasis. Her face was scrunched up in deep thought. Come on, Sis, help me out here. You've seen me ice skate before, you know what it looks like. You got this. Two sisters, one mind. Suddenly her face brightened and she jumped up to her feet. Ha, _there_ it is! I knew she'd get i-

"Michael Jordan!" she yelled, stabbing a finger in my direction.

...nevermind.

Kairi abruptly rocketed up beside her, "Gandalf!"

Anna shook her head, "Pffft, like Gandalf Cube is a thing!"

"And what, like _Michael Jordan Cub_ e is?"

Oof, I really shot myself in the foot with that whole cube thing earlier, huh?

As the girls began to bicker amongst themselves while I continued to wobble and sway on one foot, I glanced over towards the boys who were all quietly snickering at our expense. Well, _almost_ all of them. Lea instead seemed rather fascinated by the way I'd stretched and arched my body into its current pose, his eyes half-lidded as they travelled down my curves, his head slightly tilted and teeth still idly gnawing that pencil.

I smirked, a new idea forming inside my head. The girls needed more clues, after all. Planting both feet back on the ground, I bowed at the waist as if reaching down to tie the laces on my imaginary ice skates. As I bent forward, I made sure Lea got just enough of a glimpse down the front of my blouse to give him a hint of something lacy.

He bit the pencil in half with a loud _crack!_

Okay, I really was enjoying teasing him _way_ too much now.

I think all this power was going straight to my head!

The all-corrupting power of the lingerie...

A gasp suddenly tore out of Anna and she started pointing back and forth between Lea and me, "I saw that! You two secretly communicated! You're working together! Double agent! _Cheater!_ "

My head rocked back and I stammered, "Wha-?! I- How would that even- I am most certainly _not_ -"

"Ahhnnnt!" Kristoff loudly and obnoxiously made a buzzer sound.

"Oh come on, I can't be out of time already!" I told him, crossing my arms.

"You talked, and there's no talking in charades, so consider yourself disqualified," he chuckled, then added, "PS: you actually ran out of time _ages_ ago, we just let you keep going because watching you epically fail so hard was too funny."

Blowing out a tiny huff through my nostrils, I returned to my seat where the rest of the ladies gave me pats on the back and shoulder squeezes to console me. As Anna side-hugged me with one arm, she said, "There, there, Sis, I'm sure the word you got just sucked. Lemme see it," she took the little scrap of paper from me and unfurled it, read it, then blinked. "Ice?!" she snapped incredulously. "You couldn't get _ice?!_ "

I sunk further down into my seat with a groan, pinching the bridge of my nose and making no further comment.

Surprisingly, the game ended in a draw. What I lacked in being able to communicate a concept without the use of words, I more than made up for in my ability to guess what my teammates were acting out. And while I may have been my team's handicap, turns out Lea was theirs. Normally he'd have been one of their stronger players, but it seemed his head just wasn't in the game. Not if the way his eyes kept distractedly drifting over to me while the rest of the boys had to constantly yell at him to focus was any sort of clue.

A couple hours and several rounds later brought us to a point where more than a few stomachs were suddenly loudly grumbling. We decided it was high time to break for dinner, seeing as how cookies and candy canes just weren't cutting it anymore. As everyone else started making their way towards the dining room, I excused myself so I could go freshen up real quick.

As I finished up in the bathroom, I turned the faucet off and flicked my hands a few times to shake away the water before reaching for the towel. Fingers now dried, I took a moment to eye myself in the mirror before straightening my bun and smoothing out my skirt. With a little satisfied nod, I turned, opened the door and-

-came to a screeching stop, looking up and blinking a couple times. "...can I help you?"

Lea smirked back down at me from where he stood in the threshold blocking my exit. Without uttering a word, he just smugly pointed up. My gaze followed his finger and-

Fudge.

Guess what we were both now under?

That's right. He'd moved the mistletoe.

My eyelids drooped at him. "Well now, that's just cheati- _mmph!_ "

His warm lips were suddenly on mine as he grabbed my face in both hands. Unconsciously, my body leaned into his, my hands grasping at his shirt and wrinkling the material as he kissed me long and slow and we just stayed in the doorway there for a few heartbeats, his thumbs tenderly grazing along my cheekbones. Then there was a shift. His breathing turned ragged, his lips more urgent and demanding as a low growl emitted from his throat and Lea started backing me into the bathroom once more, kicking the door shut after him. Without breaking the kiss, he fumbled a hand behind him to lock it then was pushing me up against the sink counter. Lea wasted no time lifting me to sit on top of it, situating his hips between my knees as he hooked his hands beneath them and pulled me up against him roughly. He then wrapped my legs around his waist, fingertips caressing along the stockings, up my thighs and hiking my skirt a bit.

At last he broke the kiss, redirecting his attention to nibble down the side of my throat. Breathless and face hot, I whispered, "Lea, maybe we shouldn't-"

My neck suddenly seared in intense pleasure as his teeth bit down hard at just the right spot and I gasped.

...okay, maybe we _should_.

He huskily chuckled against my skin, lightly kissing it now as he murmured, "You were saying, Love?"

Desperately trying and failing to unscramble my brain, I began, "I… I was…"

"Mm-hm," he prompted absently as his lips and tongue continued to trail a path down my neck while his fingers pushed the hem of my skirt up a tad further.

"...was saying that… that we, uh…"

"Mm-hm," Lea hummed again, pulling back slightly now with a sly gleam in his crinkled eyes as he reached a hand back over his shoulder, grabbed the back of his tee, and-

Oh wow, there goes the shirt. On the floor. Just like that.

_Should_.

Lea had just made an extremely compelling argument for _should_.

I'd mentioned how persuasive he could be, right?

I dazedly watched as he took my hands in his, pressing my palms to his bare chest now as he leaned in to hungrily kiss me again. My fingers took on minds of their own as they began to drift and roam, slowly tracing down the lines and contours of his leanly muscled torso. I shivered as I felt his fingertips skim over the hollow of my shoulder and along my collarbone before settling on the top button of my blouse, tugging to undo it and moving down to the next-

"Elsa!" Several loud, frantic bangs against the door abruptly startled us apart. It took me a second to recognize Sora's voice coming from the other side as he whined, "Hurry up in there, I really, _really_ gotta go!"

"Occupied!" Lea shouted over his shoulder before grinning as he hooked a finger under my chin and bent forward, his lips brushing mine once more.

"...Elsa? Why does your voice sound funny?" Sora asked uncertainly, causing me to snort against Lea's lips. His shoulders slumped and he hung his head, cursing under his breath. The spell had been broken. We both knew it.

I gently pushed him away, scooting myself down off the countertop and snatching his shirt up off the ground to hand to him. Then I took a second to fan myself in a futile effort to cool my face before opening the door and immediately saying, "This isn't what it looks like."

Sora blinked at me. Then his gaze darted to where Lea stood behind me, eyeing Sora sourly as he pulled his tee back on.

...okay, it was _exactly_ what it looked like.

But _Sora_ didn't need to know that!

He blinked again, "Um…"

Deciding to save him from having to come up with a more sophisticated response than that, I simply took Lea's hand in mine and left the bathroom towing him along after me, his dark scowl never leaving Sora as we pushed passed him and headed towards the dining room.

On the way there, we bumped into Rayne in the hallway who was bouncing Cayde in her arms in what seemed to be an attempt to get him to settle down. She arched an eyebrow at me as we drew near. "I thought you were freshening up."

My brow furrowed at her. "...I did."

She eyed me up and down, then snerked. "Sure ya did," was her only remark as she wiggled her eyebrows, shifted the baby to rest against her shoulder and disappeared through the door to join the others for dinner.

I tipped my head to one side, then glanced in a decorative mirror that was hanging on the wall to my left. To say I'd been disheveled would have been the understatement of the century. My skirt was rumpled, my blouse skewed, and I was still bright red from practically head to toe. To top it all off, my hair was free of its bun and positively wild.

"When did you do that?" I narrowed my eyes accusingly at Lea as I did my best to gather and throw it back up into a haphazard bun.

Alright fine, I knew _exactly_ when he did it. I just hadn't even _realized_ he'd done it.

He pursed his lips to one side, shoved his hands into his pockets and gave a tiny shrug as I finished righting my clothes. I then noticed his eyes flick down, suddenly seeming highly fascinated by something. I followed his gaze to spot my top button of my blouse still undone and flashing a scandalous little sneak preview of the lingerie. Blushing harder (the exact _opposite_ of what I wanted to be doing right now, dammit, cheeks!), I hastily re-fastened the button while Lea grinned wolfishly. I pinched his arm, wiping the smirk off his face before taking his hand in mine once more and leading him into the room.

Everyone was seated at the long wooden dining table already and were all too busy laughing and talking over each other to pay much mind to our entrance. As I quietly took a seat, I noticed most of the dishes of piping hot food had already been brought out to the table. Kristoff was bringing out the last of them with my sister's help.

"I'm so happy my man knows how to cook," Anna delightedly chirped as she set down a bowl of yams before giggling and pressing a smooch to Kristoff's cheek. "That way, I don't have to!"

I smiled at the two of them while Lea plonked down into the chair beside me. He laced our fingers together, his thumb idly rubbing along my knuckles as he settled his other elbow onto the table, heavily propped his chin in his palm and heaved a long, drawn out sigh through his nose. His eyes narrowed on Sora as he returned from the restroom and happily crossed the room to take a seat between Riku and Kairi, totally oblivious to the daggers my boyfriend was glaring at him the whole way. Lea then looked away, petulantly huffing out a second grumbly sigh.

It seemed _somebody_ was still a bit pouty over our little interlude in the bathroom being interrupted.

We couldn't have that now, could we? Not on Christmas! Let's see what we can do to perk his spirits a bit.

I shifted ever so slightly in my seat, casually bumping my knee into his as if it were by accident. Lea glanced over at me, quirking an eyebrow. One corner of my lips turned up as I took our still intertwined hands and moved them under the table, releasing his so it could settle on my knee instead. He sat up a little straighter in his chair, his other eyebrow rising to join the first. I grinned coyly, averted my gaze and said nothing, merely waiting for him to take the hint as I reached for the cup of hot cider already waiting for me next to my plate.

Slowly, tentatively, his hand started to slide up my leg, brushing my skirt up with it as he went until he reached the garter. There he paused, his fingertips exploring, grazing over its soft delicate embroidery and toying with it. I could see Lea's face heating as he brought his other hand up to bite down on the knuckle of his curled finger. I just sipped my drink and smiled politely at the conversation the others were carrying on around us. The perfect picture of prim and properness. As if nothing even remotely untoward were happening under the table in the slightest.

Eventually, his hand began tracing the garter down to my inner thigh, discovering where one of the straps connected to it. His fingertips trailed circles over the clasp a couple times before then attempting to follow the strap further up between my legs.

_That's_ when I snagged his wrist, stopping it dead in its tracks and shooting him a flat look.

Sorry, bucko, but that's as far as this little adventure at the dinner table goes.

His muscles were tense. His left eye twitched. But then Lea closed his eyes, released a low, shaky breath and his posture relaxed somewhat as with what appeared to be a considerable amount of visible effort, he willed himself to take his hand back.

"So hey!" Kairi suddenly piped up over everyone else, causing the chatter to die down a bit as all eyes turned towards her. "I brought a buncha Christmas movies with me! You know, all the classics. I was thinking maybe it could be fun for all of us to watch a couple after we finish eating. How does that sound?"

Lea cleared his throat, raking his fingers through his hair as he began, "Actually, El and I had other-"

"What a wonderful idea!" I chimed in brightly before turning to plant a swift peck to the corner of Lea's jawline. "We'd love to, isn't that right, Lea? Since we all know what a fan of the classics you are."

He pressed his lips together into a thin line and simply fixed me with a dull stare.

Oh yes.

No doubt about it.

I was definitely having way, _way_ too much fun teasing him.

* * *

It was late. Little Ralphie Parker's father had just thrown aside fistfuls upon fistfuls of packing to liberate the infamous leg lamp from its crate in the movie. A quick glance around the dim room, lit only by the soft glow from the TV screen, revealed everyone to be cozied up together in one way or another as they enjoyed the film.

Rayne was curled up with Riku under a blanket, him turning his head to press an affectionate kiss to the top of her head. Sora was using Kairi's lap as a makeshift pillow, their hands joined and resting atop his chest as they watched. Anna was occupying an armchair with Kristoff seated on the floor before her, using her knees as a backrest while her nimble fingers plaited hundreds of thin, tiny braids into his short blonde hair. Roxas and Xion were taking their turn for some snuggle time with the twins who, even though it was now well past their bedtimes, were being quite obstinate about going to sleep.

Even Saïx had a cuddle buddy, although he was too busy snoring to realize it. It seemed being up during the daylight hours to power through getting all his work done had finally caught up to and taken its toll on him. Back on the couch once more, his laptop lay forgotten on his lap with the screensaver running while he'd conked out nestled into Marshmallow's plush fur beside him. Marshmallow's tail thumped quietly against the couch cushions as he too began to drift off into dreams.

Grinning, I returned my gaze to the movie and settled more comfortably into Lea's side as I laid my head against his chest once again and my arms hugged more tightly around his waist. I could feel him fiddling with a stray lock of my bangs that'd gotten loose, looping and twiddling it between his fingers. Then his hand diverted its attention to instead trail lightly along my bare shoulder, his fingertips drawing invisible patterns there against my skin. It tickled and I involuntarily squirmed against him a bit.

I heard him suck in a soft hiss of breath, shifting in his seat as he hastily removed his hand, fingers splaying and flexing before closing into a fist that he planted firmly on the sofa backrest behind my head now. His knee started furiously jerking up and down. I turned my head to look up at him. His whole body was rigid and his jaw set tight, the very fires of determination seemingly burning in his eyes currently as he focused hard on the movie (perhaps a little _too_ hard), though his gaze kept flicking to the clock hanging on the wall every few seconds.

Frowning, I brought a hand up, brushing my knuckles tenderly over his cheek. Lea stiffened, his whole body suddenly going very still. I altered course to stroke his hair, gently running my fingers through it. His breath hitched as his eyes slowly closed and I could feel him quivering slightly. Then he abruptly snatched my hand, disentangling it from his mess of untamed hair.

I blinked at him.

He pressed a lingering kiss to the back of my hand before settling it on his knee as he ducked his head, bringing his lips right next to my ear as he half whispered, half growled, "Love, it's taking every last ounce of restraint I have not to just throw you on the coffee table and take you in a primal cavemanly fashion, so unless you want to give our friends a bit of a show, I suggest you _stop_."

...oh dear.

It seemed I'd made him wait a little too long and he was dangerously close to his breaking point.

Thus I decided to finally and at long last take pity on him.

It was time.

Time to let him unwrap his gift.

I stood up, spinning on my heel to face Lea. He stared up at my quizzically, probably leery of getting his hopes up at this point. Smiling sweetly, I reached down, taking his hands in mine and pulling him up to his feet as well as I announced to the rest of the room, "If you'll excuse us, Lea's not feeling too hot, so we're going to head to bed now." His hand still in mine, I led him out of the room and towards the stairs as the others called out a chorus of feel-betters and goodnights after us.

Reaching the second floor, I stepped through our door ahead of him and cast a brief glance about as I stood in the center of the bedroom, taking it in. The traditional rustic wooden walls decorated with a couple small pieces of hanging art here and there. The pair of plump armchairs in one corner next to a homey little fireplace, currently unlit and cold but with plenty of logs just waiting for a spark. The antique wardrobe and dresser off to one side, the door off to another leading into the adjoining private bathroom. The king-sized bed stacked high with blankets and quilts for fighting off the chill later on in the dead of night.

The muted click of Lea shutting the door behind us caught my attention, but I didn't turn to look at him, merely waited. There was a pause. One that was so long and quiet, I almost began to wonder if he'd left for some reason. But then I could all but feel him standing behind me, _feel_ the warmth practically radiating off his body just a few short inches away from mine, sending a tiny chill up my spine and a small flutter through my chest.

His hands found their way to my hair, a simple tug pulling the bun free once more and sending my platinum locks cascading down my back. I shook it out a little more, resisting the urge to shiver at the pleasant tingling sensation brought on by him slowly, almost reverently combing his fingers through the strands. Then his fingertips were trailing along my shoulders and ghosting lightly down my arms where they came to settle comfortably on my hips. I could feel him nestling his face into my hair, pressing a kiss into it as he inhaled deeply, humming low in pleasure as his grip on my hips tightened and his body pressed more firmly up against my back.

At the gentle insistence of his hands, I turned and faced him now. Gosh, he was so tall. You'd think I'd be used to it by now, but I wasn't. It was moments like these - moments where no words were spoken and there was so little space between us - that reminded me just how tall he truly was. Not to mention how handsome he was or painfully gorgeous those startlingly green eyes of his were, especially while they were hooded and swirling as darkly as they were now. My pulse couldn't help but pick up the tempo beneath his heated gaze.

The air felt charged between us, nearly unbearably so. I was almost surprised Lea hadn't simply pounced the second we were alone. The slight tremble to his hand as he brought it up to stroke my cheek suggested that might be exactly what he wanted to do but was holding himself back. Perhaps he was going slow because he was wary of this moment being snatched away from him yet again like they all had been so far today. Perhaps he simply wanted to take his time and savor this. Whatever the case may be, as his fingers tangled themselves in my hair and he leaned in now, there was no doubt in my mind all that was about to change. I knew the second his lips met mine, all bets would be off. That last shred of restraint he was barely clinging on to would snap and all that pent up frustration he'd been keeping in check all day would be unleashed and given free rein. My face burned and my heart hammered as he closed the distance, so near now that I could feel his breath warming my lips as he murmured my name and-

"TOOTHPASTE!" I suddenly blurted out loudly.

He jerked back, eyes wide and both eyebrows skyrocketing as if to ask, _Um… sorry, who what now?_

Which honestly? Couldn't blame him.

So, mouth? Care to explain yourself?

I stammered nonsensically for a bit, wringing my hands together before finally pointing a thumb over my shoulder towards the restroom and managing to get out, "For brush teeth… make m-mint fresh in mouth."

Ah yes, clear as mud now. Thanks, mouth. Your gift for gab never ceases to amaze and astound.

My oh so eloquent words hung in the air between us as we just stared at each other for a few seconds. Then I bolted into the bathroom, slamming the door shut and locking it behind me. Pressing my back to it, I buried my face in my hands and slid down to sit on the floor.

Smooth going there, little Miss Casanova. Just really know how to set the mood, huh?

I groaned and banged the back of my head against the door.

Oh god, Lea was going to think I freaked out because of him. That I didn't want to, hrm… _be intimate_ with him. But I did! I _loved_ being intimate with him! It was something he was very good at! Very, _very_ good! Amazing, in fact! But what did I go and do the second I had a chance to do exactly that with him?

I'd panicked and choked, that's what!

Because this time was different.

This time, _lingerie_ was involved.

Putting it on and teasing him with it was one thing. But lingerie had _implications_. It set _expectations_. You were supposed to, I don't know… act sexy… _be_ sexy… you know, that whole feminine wiles things! And my feminine wiles? Still a work in progress. Sure, it was something I'd gotten better at since Lea and I had started dating, but trust me, I still had a _long_ way to go. And yet here I'd gone, riling him up all day and now that the moment had finally arrived where I had to deliver the goods, I'd…

I'd gotten a bit of stage fright, okay?! So sue me!

...maybe I was just being silly. Overthinking all of this. Putting too much pressure on myself for no reason. This _was_ Lea we were talking about here, after all. I could go out there and do the least attractive impression of a sloth in a negligee doing the chicken dance while yodeling and he'd _still_ probably find it sexy. (...dear lord, the fool _honestly_ might. Not even joking anymore.) The point was that he loved me and I loved him, so this shouldn't be such a big deal. One teeny bit of silky, lacy _fabric_ shouldn't be a big deal. Yeah, this was supposed to be fun.

So, missy, you march your little hiney back out there and have fun, dammit!

Nostrils flaring, I pressed a hand to the door behind me and pushed myself up onto my feet once more, turning to look at myself in the mirror. My reflection had fists balled at her hips, her shoulders squared, her head held high, and a look of ironclad resolve flashing in her blue eyes. I leaned forward, planting one hand on the sink countertop and using the other to jab a finger up against the mirror surface as I hissed, "Now listen up and listen good, me! You're going to go out there and… and… knock his friggin' socks off!"

She blinked back at me, visibly gulping with a tiny frown.

My shoulders sagged. "...I think."

Atta girl, that's the fire and can-do attitude we like to hear!

Face hardening once more, I gave myself a firm nod, straightened up and gingerly began unbuttoning my blouse. Once I'd shed it and tossed it to the floor, I slipped out of my skirt as well. Then I stood in front of the mirror inspecting myself, cheeks surely roasting hotter than the fires of Mount Doom. My lips pursed to one side. I awkwardly settled a hand against my right hip. Then I swept my hair forward over one shoulder. Only to brush it back again a second later.

Couldn't decide which way had a more 'come hither' look to it.

Narrowing my eyes, I whisked it forward again.

Then back.

Forward.

Back.

Fo-

_Ugh_ , forget it and move on already!

Just then, I remembered something. Hesitantly, I turned my head, my eyes drifting almost unbidden towards our suitcases cluttered together in one corner of the spacious bathroom. Not really sure why Lea had put them in here when he'd dropped them off earlier. Maybe I'd asked him to and it'd simply slipped my mind. Maybe he'd just been looking for a place to stow them where they'd be out of our way in anticipation of tonight's activities.

Whatever the case may be, they were in here with me now. And that meant…

Inhaling and exhaling slowly, I approached them, locating mine and unzipping it. Flipping the lid open, I stared inside and paused in a moment of indecision. Then I grit my teeth and plunged my hand in, digging down deep past my clothes in search of the thing.

You know.

_That_ thing.

The one Anna had made me buy.

I felt my fingers bump into it and I closed them around it, holding my breath before pulling it out. Then I stared down at what I now held in my hand.

A riding crop.

You read that right.

A friggin' _riding crop_.

Did I have the first clue what to do with it?

Not really, no.

Was I going to bring it out with me anyway?

...sure, why not?

I mean, I was already a bit of a nervous wreck over this whole ordeal, so it was hard to imagine this could make it any worse.

Go big or go home, as they say.

Heart pounding in my ears and insides twisting into a billion, quadrillion knots, I turned to face the door, chin hitched and back straight.

Slinky lingerie? Check. Riding crop? Check… apparently.

Operation Sexy Time was a go.

Let's do this.

I bravely charged forth.

And by that, I mean I opened the door just enough to cautiously poke my head out for a peek.

But I _bravely_ poked my head out cautiously, dammit!

I spotted Lea dejectedly lying on the bed now, sprawled out on his back and smothering his face with a pillow. Heh… off to a good start here. Opening the door wider, I quietly crept a few steps into the room. With how high my blush had cranked up to at this point, it was a wonder I hadn't burnt to a crisp already. My empty hand stiffly found its way to my hip once more. I swept my hair forward again. Then grimaced, pushing it back. Then forw-

Gah, quit fussing, you stupid hands, and just get on with it already!

As Lea still seemed unaware of my presence and with me at a loss for how else to get his attention, I anxiously cleared my throat.

He didn't budge, just groaned into the pillow and muffled out, "What new way have you come to torment me with _now_ , devil woman?"

Such a drama queen. Shaking my head, I began, "Lea-"

"Is there even really lingerie under there or is that just more of your cruel, twisted mind games to string me along and torture me?"

I rolled my eyes with a tiny huff of a snort and tried again, " _Lea_."

Face still under the pillow, he struck a defiant finger up high into the air, "Well not this guy! Nu-uh, no siree bob! I am _done_ dancing to your sadistic whims! Begone, devious succubus, and tempt me no more with your-"

"Lea!" I snapped exasperatedly, unconsciously smacking my crop against my leg.

Oof, that'd stung a bit.

But it seemed to be what finally caught his attention. He hooked a thumb beneath his pillow now, lazily hoisting it up just enough for him to lift his head and look at me. Then he bolted up into a sitting position, back ramrod straight and eyes all but popping out of his head as the pillow tumbled to the mattress behind him. His wide-eyed gaze met mine. Then darted down to the lingerie. Over to the riding crop in my hand. Then he was madly scrambling to the foot of the bed, sitting on his knees there with his hands gripping the edge of the bedframe hard enough to turn his knuckles white as he heavily and rapidly breathed through his nose.

I just stood there, flushing more furiously and resisting the urge to self-consciously shift my weight from one foot to the other.

_OhgodwhatdoIdowhatdoIdowhatdoIdowhatdowhatdoIdowhatdoI-_

In a state of mild panic, I abruptly thrust the crop towards him and blurted out, "Shirt. Off."

...sure, that works.

Not missing a beat and faster than should have been humanly possible, Lea yanked his top up over his head and chucked it across the room. Then his eyes fastened on me once more, seemingly eagerly awaiting my next instruction.

Uh…

_Nowwhatnowwhatnowwhatnowwhatnowwhatnow-_

"Knees," I pointed at a spot on the floor in front of me, "Now."

In his haste to comply, he stumbled and fell out of the bed, crashing into the floor but was quick to recover and prop himself up on his knees before me.

_Fudgewhatnextwhatnextwhatnextwhat-_

Swat your thigh with the thingie again!

...I'm sorry, brain, do _what_ now?

Well, I mean… it seemed to be highly well received just a second ago, so…

Pulse racing, I hesitated for a split second before piercing the air with another sharp _thwack_ of the riding crop hitting my skin. His muscles visibly grew taut and tense, but he stayed put, his throat emitting an impatient whimper.

...was it really this easy?

...this actually _was_ kind of fun…

Feeling some of the nervous tension start to ebb from my body, I slowly began to circle him now, lightly tapping the lash of the crop into the palm of my other hand as I murmured, "Now… what, oh what am I going to do with you?"

Lea released a deep, throaty chuckle. "...I might be able to think of a thing or two…"

Coming to a stop in front of him once again, I bowed down to his eye level, using the riding crop to lift his chin as I grinned at him. "I'm listening."

For the record, zero sleep was had that Christmas night.

The lingerie did not survive Lea's ravenous onslaught.

We may have also slightly broken that antique dresser.

Oops. Guess they just don't make those things as sturdy as they used to.

* * *

**_Author's Note:_ ** _HAPPY NEW YEAR! And based on this chapter, have another (belated) merry Christmas xD Figures that my longest chapter to date had to be the friggin' lingerie chapter xD I am almost ashamed of myself… BUT NOT REALLY! No regrets, yolo! Lol, I hope you all had as much fun reading this as I had fun writing it :D_

_Fun Fact: This was actually the first bonus chapter idea I came up with for this story. It came to me about a year ago while I was still working on chapter… 17 I think? I wanted to immediately start writing it, but I restrained myself, wanting to finish the main story first. But having a whole year with this one-shot in the back of my mind is probably why it ended up being so long, cuz I kept coming up with more little ideas to squeeze into it xD Then of course, I started coming up with the ideas for the other bonus chapters that came before it, forcing myself to wait even longer to write it but aaahhhhhh, yay, I finally got to this one! And did I include Esmeralda's Secrets all the way back in chapter 19 specifically with this bonus chapter in mind? Yes, yes I did x'D Of course, I knew this whole time Esmeralda herself was gonna be making an appearance, but Frollo turned out to be a last minute addition that came to me as I was writing the chapter. But including him made me realize I had a missed opportunity: on one of Lea's and Elsa's many visits to the mall's clock tower which has BELLS, they should've bumped into a certain hunchback who's in charge of maintaining said bells xD Ah well, even tho they never saw him in the story, I've made it canon now: that is officially Quasimodo's job in this AU xD And he's always embarrassed about his adoptive father protesting with his picket signs outside the store of the cute girl he has a crush on xD Poor guy!_

_So many lines I snagged from the video games and the movies as references this chapter, I wonder if you guys were able to catch every single little one I slipped in? xD And obviously Elsa's fave musical that's playing at Broadway is Frozen 2 (since that's where Show Yourself that she sang back in auditions was from) but I didn't want to CALL it that in the story, but had zero ideas for a clever replacement title, so it didn't get a name xD And while I gave a few details here and there, for the most part I left the lingerie Elsa purchased vague on purpose - I figure some things are just best left to the imagination ;P Lea doesn't usually have such a one track mind as he did this chapter… or maybe he does and he's just usually more tactful about concealing it xD Either way, Lea ALSO isn't usually presented with the possibility of his very hot girlfriend dressing up in sexy lingerie for him, so can ya really blame the guy for being a bit of a horndog this chapter? I think not xP Worry not however, he'll be back to his normal, (slightly) more classy self next chapter xD You can bet tho that now that he knows Elsa has been to the dirty store in the mall, that he's dragged has since dragged her back there on more than one occasion now so they could make a few purchases as a couple, hehehe :3 But like I said all the way back at the very beginning, despite the main subject of the chapter, it was still all fairly tame, right? I haven't yet crossed THAT particular line… I may come right up to the line, dance wildly and with reckless abandon on top of the line, but not cross it xD I dunno if I'll ever be brave enough to write a full-on lemon, but maybe one day…. Hehehehe…_

_Anyhoo, tis with a sad and heavy heart that I must announce that this will probably be my last update for a while. Don't worry, there's more to come! I still have at least 3 more bonus chapters for this story planned! However, I've been working on almost nothing but this story for over a year now and I've finally hit a point where I need a break xD I think I'm gonna take a few weeks and have a breather from writing in general, but trust me, that won't last for long before the itch takes hold of me once again and I'll NEED to scratch it! When that happens, I'm not sure what I'm gonna work on next - it'll be Axelsa, without question, that's just my brand yo, it has my very SOUL xD But WHICH Axelsa story is the question! Will I update one of my older incomplete stories or will I get back to work on that new story I have the first 3 chapters written of that I've yet to share with you all? Guess we'll seeeeeeeeeeee xD Until then,_ _now would be a WONDERFUL time to bookmark, subscribe, and follow_ _me and/or my story if you haven't already! That way, you won't miss any future updates whenever they go live! Now is also a great time to leave a_ _kudos or a comment_ _and let me know what you think about my story! I also have a blog over on tumblr that I may or may not be posting Axelsa fanart to (both mine and others), hehe so come check it out, my username is axelsa-holic :)_

_Thank you so much for reading, especially to those of you who have left a kudos and shared with me your thoughts and feelings on this story so far! Remember, feedback is not only welcome, but highly encouraged and super appreciated! Until you hear from me again, just know I'm always out there somewhere in the world, daydreaming up more Axelsa content to share with you all xD_


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